Multimodal Imaging, OCT en Face, and OCT Angiography of an Anomalous Retinal Artery: Case Report and Review of the Literature

The purpose is to study for the first time the vascular plexuses and the retinal nerve fiber layer and raphe of a patient with a very uncommon anatomical variation: an anomalous retinal artery supplying the whole macula. We used multimodal imaging, en face spectral-domain optic coherence tomography,...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Vidal Villegas, Beatriz, Miralles de Imperial Ollero, Juan Antonio, Santos Bueso, Enrique, García Feijoo, Julián, Villegas Pérez, María Paz
Format: article
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repository:Docta Complutense
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/4507
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/4507
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:617.735-073.75
Anomalous macular artery
Optic coherence tomography angiography
Papillomacular bundle
Retinal nerve fiber layer raphe
Diagnóstico por imagen y medicina nuclear
Oftalmología
3204.01 Medicina Nuclear
3201.09 Oftalmología
Description
Summary:The purpose is to study for the first time the vascular plexuses and the retinal nerve fiber layer and raphe of a patient with a very uncommon anatomical variation: an anomalous retinal artery supplying the whole macula. We used multimodal imaging, en face spectral-domain optic coherence tomography, and spectral-domain optic coherence tomography angiography. One patient presented in his left eye a very unusual anatomical variation of macular vascularization. A retinal artery deriving from the inferior temporal retinal artery irrigated the whole macula. The formation of the papillomacular bundle and the temporal raphe nerve fiber layer has been attributed to the earlier development of the central retina and to the existence of 2 distinct watershed zones. However, there are very uncommon anatomical variations of the retinal vasculature in which large retinal vessels cross the raphe and could influence the morphology and structure of the nerve fiber layer of the posterior pole. We review the literature on the subject and document for the first time an anomalous artery that irrigates the whole macula, normal thickness and morphology of the nerve fiber layer, and the temporal raphe.