PARACENTRAL ACUTE MIDDLE MACULOPATHY AND DEEP RETINAL CAPILLARY PLEXUS INFARCTION SECONDARY TO REPERFUSED CENTRAL RETINAL ARTERY OCCLUSION.

PURPOSE: To report a case of reperfused central retinal artery occlusion causing a globular pattern of paracentral acute middle maculopathy with en face optical coherence tomography (OCT).

METHODS: Retrospective case report. Widefield fluorescein angiography, en face OCT, and OCT-angiography were performed. Retinal capillary plexus vessel density (mm) was measured using OCT-angiography analysis and was defined as total vessel length (mm) per area (mm).

RESULTS: A 76-year-old female presented with decreased vision in the left eye for 1 day. Widefield fluorescein angiography revealed delayed venous filling in the early phase and selective arterial staining in the late phase. Spectral domain OCT demonstrated paracentral acute middle maculopathy. Optical coherence tomography-angiography showed an ischemic deep retinal capillary plexus that colocalized with a globular shaped hyper-reflective pattern identified with structural en face OCT. Quantitative vessel density analysis comparing the fellow eye to the affected eye at presentation demonstrated 43% reduction in the superficial capillary plexus vessel density and 33% reduction of the deep capillary plexus in the affected eye. At 2 months follow-up, the reduction of superficial capillary plexus vessel density improved to 33%, whereas the deep capillary plexus vessel density reduced further to 35% compared with the fellow eye.

CONCLUSION: The authors report a case of reperfused central retinal artery occlusion leading to a globular shaped paracentral acute middle maculopathy lesion with en face OCT. Quantitative OCT-angiography vessel density analysis in the chronic phase revealed disproportionate reduction of deep capillary plexus vessel density. The globular pattern of paracentral acute middle maculopathy with en face OCT can be an important clue to the diagnosis of central retinal artery occlusion.