Purpose: Affections of the orbit and eye are easily described by means of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) but there are some cases where ultrasound can be diriment or very helpful. The purpose of our work is to demonstrate the role of HR-US, 3D and CEUS in the assessment of the anterior eye, the vitreous body and the eyebulb.
Methods and materials: 131 patients with a suspect affection of the eye and/or of the orbit have been assessed with HR-US. Among these, 13 patients underwent also to a 3D examination and 11 underwent also to a CEUS. Moreover, 18 patients underwent a CT and 10 a MR.
Results: We detected 66 traumatic lesions: among these, there were 6 lesions of the anterior chamber, 34 lesions of the vitreous body, 11 lesions of the eye membranes, 7 lesions of back-eyebulb soft tissues, 9 retinal separations and 7 coroid separations. Furthermore, we detected 2 coroid melanoma, 3 back-eyebulb intraconal tumors, 4 orbital extraconal tumors and 2 arterovenous malformation. Dysthyroid orbitopathy was excluded from our study.
Conclusions: HR-US was highly sensitive in the detection of traumatic and non-traumatic lesions of the eyebulb. On the other hand, HR-US was not efficient in the assessment of the lesions of the orbital wall. The use of 3D module has increased the diagnostic value of HR-US. CEUS is helpful in the differential diagnosis of retinal separations and bulbar tumor, in the therapeutic program of coroid melanoma and in the evaluation of orbital neoformation vascularization.