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

Abstract

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.