Radioactive phosphorus-uptake-testing variables before and after enucleation.

Values for radioactive phosphorus uptake from 23 eyes with malignant melanomas of the choroid were compared before and after enucleation. In all but two eyes, the percentage increase in 32P uptake was higher immediately after enucleation than before enucleation. In 11 eyes, the variation was more than 100%. In one eye, the percentage increase of 32P uptake was 68% before enucleation and 137% after enucleation. The clinical importance of our findings is that pressure on the globe by the detector probe before enucleation may locally decrease choroidal blood volume thereby causing an increase in the calculated 32P uptake.