Macula of retina

This article is about the macula of the human eye. For other uses of the term macula, see Macula (disambiguation).

Macula of retina
Human eye cross-sectional view, with macula near center.
Details
Latin	macula lutea
Identifiers
MeSH	Macula+Lutea
Dorlands /Elsevier	m_01/12509252
TA
TH	{{#property:P1694}}
TE	{{#property:P1693}}
FMA	{{#property:P1402}}
Anatomical terminology [[[d:|edit on Wikidata]]]

Fundus photographs of the right eye (left image) and left eye (right image), seen from front so that left in each image is to the person's right. The gaze is into the camera, so in each picture the macula is in the center of the image, and the optic disk is located towards the nose.

The macula or macula lutea (from Latin macula, "spot" + lutea, "yellow") is an oval-shaped pigmented area near the center of the retina of the human eye. It has a diameter of around 5.5 mm (0.22 in). The macula is subdivided into the umbo, foveola, foveal avascular zone (FAZ), fovea, parafovea, and perifovea areas. After death or enucleation (removal of the eye) the macula appears yellow, a color that is not visible in the living eye except when viewed with light from which red has been filtered. The anatomical macula at 5.5 mm (0.22 in) is much larger than the clinical macula which, at 1.5 mm (0.059 in), corresponds to the anatomical fovea. The clinical macula is seen when viewed from the pupil, as in ophthalmoscopy or retinal photography. The anatomical macula is defined histologically in terms of having two or more layers of ganglion cells.

Near its center is the fovea, a small pit that contains the largest concentration of cone cells in the eye and is responsible for central, high-resolution vision. The umbo is the center of the foveola which is located at the centre of fovea.

Structure

Schematic diagram of the macula lutea of the retina, showing perifovea, parafovea, fovea, and clinical macula

Photograph of the retina of the human eye, with overlay diagrams showing the positions and sizes of the macula, fovea, and optic disc

Color

Because the macula is yellow in colour it absorbs excess blue and ultraviolet light that enter the eye, and acts as a natural sunblock (analogous to sunglasses) for this area of the retina. The yellow color comes from its content of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are yellow xanthophyll carotenoids, derived from the diet. Zeaxanthin predominates at the macula, while lutein predominates elsewhere in the retina. There is some evidence that these carotenoids protect the pigmented region from some types of macular degeneration.

Regions

• Fovea - 1.55 mm (0.061 in)
• Foveal Avascular Zone (FAZ) - 0.5 mm (0.020 in)
• Foveola - 0.35 mm (0.014 in)
• Umbo - 0.15 mm (0.0059 in)

Function

Structures in the macula are specialized for high-acuity vision. Within the macula are the fovea and foveola that both contain a high density of cones (photoreceptors with high acuity).

Clinical significance

Whereas loss of peripheral vision may go unnoticed for some time, damage to the macula will result in loss of central vision, which is usually immediately obvious. The progressive destruction of the macula is a disease known as macular degeneration and can sometimes lead to the creation of a macular hole. Macular holes are rarely caused by trauma, but if a severe blow is delivered it can burst the blood vessels going to the macula, destroying it.

Visual input from the macula occupies a substantial portion of the brain's visual capacity. As a result, some forms of visual field loss can occur without involving the macula; this is termed macular sparing. (For example, visual field testing might demonstrate homonymous hemianopsia with macular sparing.)

In the case of occipitoparietal ischemia owing to occlusion of elements of either posterior cerebral artery, patients may display cortical blindness (which, rarely, can involve blindness that the patient denies having, as seen in Anton's Syndrome), yet display sparing of the macula. This selective sparing is due to the collateral circulation offered to macular tracts by the middle cerebral artery. Neurological examination that confirms macular sparing can go far in representing the type of damage mediated by an infarct, in this case, indicating that the caudal visual cortex (which is the principal recipient of macular projections of the optic nerve) has been spared. Further, it indicates that cortical damage rostral to, and including, lateral geniculate nucleus is an unlikely outcome of the infarction, as too much of the lateral geniculate nucleus is, proportionally, devoted to macular-stream processing.

Additional images

• 

  The interior of the posterior half of the left eyeball.

• 

  A fundus photograph showing the macula as a spot to the left. The optic disc is the area on the right where blood vessels converge. The grey, more diffuse spot in the centre is a shadow artifact.

See also

This article uses anatomical terminology; for an overview, see Anatomical terminology.

• Cherry-red spot
• Cystoid macular edema
• Intermediate uveitis
• Macular corneal dystrophy
• Macular degeneration
• Macular edema
• Macular hypoplasia
• Macular pucker

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• MedlinePlus Encyclopedia 002252