CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1638909
This article is part of the Research TopicImaging in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Eye DiseasesView all 27 articles
Case Report: A Rare Presentation of Short Posterior Ciliary Artery Occlusion with Paracentral Acute Middle Maculopathy
Provisionally accepted
Yuanmin Dai*
Jiehui Xu- Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China
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The occlusion of the short posterior ciliary artery (SPCA), a severe yet infrequent ocular vascular pathology, becomes particularly uncommon when it coexists with paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM). We report a rare instance involving a middle-aged male who experienced an occlusion of the posterior ciliary short artery alongside paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM). The patient, a 48-year-old male, presented with a sudden loss of vision in the upper left visual field and a slight decrease in visual acuity. Multimodal imaging, including scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) imaging, revealed a "tongue-shaped" region of normal retina with mild retinal edema both above and below the optic disc. Fluorescein angiography (FA) exhibited minor delays in arterial perfusion and venous reflux, and a "tongue-shaped" area of normal retina was observed, with delayed hypofluorescence in the retinal areas above and below the optic disc, coupled with diminished choroidal background fluorescence, forming a "triangle" that pointed towards the optic disc. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) disclosed retinal edema and hyperreflective bands within the inner nuclear layer and mild thickening of the inner retina. PAMM arises from inner retinal vascular lesions leading to macular hypoperfusion; however, its occurrence in the context of choroidal ischemic diseases is seldom documented. Consequently, this case provides novel perspectives on the retinal blood supply system.
Keywords: Short posterior ciliary arteries, paracentral acute middle maculopathy, Optical Coherence Tomography, Fluorescein angiograph, Ischemia
Received: 31 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dai and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuanmin Dai, Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China
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