Abstract
Purpose: :
To describe the spectrum of diagnoses and estimate associations between patient characteristics and conjunctival lesions undergoing biopsy in an eye specialty hospital in the southeast United States.
Methods: :
All specimens with a tissue source described as conjunctiva submitted from the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital at the University of Alabama at Birmingham between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2004 were identified. Demographic and diagnosis information associated with these specimens was collected from medical records and other sources. All specimens were classified according to pathological process (neoplastic, degenerative, inflammatory, traumatic, normal tissue, or other), malignancy status (benign, pre–malignant, or malignant), and tissue type (epithelial, melanocytic, lymphoid, lymphangiomatous, vascular, adipose, or neural). Specimen classifications were compared according to demographic characteristics using analysis of variance and chi–square tests.
Results: :
A total of 321 specimens were submitted during the study period. Of the identified pathological processes, neoplastic lesions were most common (41%) followed by degenerative lesions (39%). Within the neoplastic category, benign lesions were most common (43%) followed by premalignant lesions (35%) and malignant lesions (22%). Epithelial lesions represented the most common tissue type (66%) followed by melanocytic (22%) and lymphoid (5%). Older age was found to be associated with both a greater chance of malignancy (p<0.0001) and an epithelial or vascular tissue type (p=0.02). Race was not associated with any lesion characteristic. Gender was associated with neither tissue type nor pathological process, however patients with malignant lesions were more likely to be male (p=0.0009).
Conclusions: :
Patients with malignant or premalignant lesions of the conjunctiva were more likely to be older and male. No association between race and lesion characteristics was observed.
Keywords: tumors • conjunctiva