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Information about Central Retinal Artery

Artery:
The ophthalmic artery and its branches. (Central retinal artery visible at center.)
Interior of posterior half of bulb of left eye. The veins are darker in appearance than the arteries. (Central retinal artery visible but not labeled.)
Latinarteria centralis retinae
subject #146 571
Suppliesretina
Sourceophthalmic artery
Veincentral retinal vein
MeSH Retinal+Artery
Dorlands/Elsevier a_61/12153778
The central retinal artery (retinal artery) branches off the ophthalmic artery, running inferior to the optic nerve within its dural sheath to the eyeball.

Course

It pierces the optic nerve close to the eyeball, sending branches over the internal surface of the retina, and these terminal branches are the only blood supply to the larger part of it.

The central part of the retina where the light rays are focussed after passing through the pupil and the lens is a circular area called the macula. The center of this circular area is the fovea. The fovea and a small area surrounding it are not supplied by the central retinal artery or its branches..

Supplies

The central retinal artery still supplies all the nerve fibers that form the optic nerve that carries the visual information to the occipital lobe cerebral cortex, including those that reach over the fovea.

Pathology

Thus if the central retinal artery gets occluded, there is complete loss of vision in that eye even though the fovea is not affected. The entire retina (with the exception of the fovea) becomes pale and swollen and opaque while the central fovea still appears reddish (this is because the choroid color shows through). This is the basis of the famous "Cherry red spot" seen on examination of the retina on funduscopy of a central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).

In some cases - approximately 20% of the population - there is a branch of the ciliary circulation called the cilio-retinal artery which supplies the retina between the macula and the optic nerve, including the nerve fibers from the foveal photoreceptors. If this artery is present, the central vision will be preserved even in case of CRAO.

Additional images


Horizontal section of the eyeball.

The terminal portion of the optic nerve and its entrance into the eyeball, in horizontal section.


External links

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Arteries of head and neck
CC, EC: Anteriorsuperior thyroid (superior laryngeal) - lingual (sublingual)
facial: cervical branches (ascending palatine - tonsillar - submental - glandular) - facial branches (inferior labial - superior labial - lateral nasal - angular)
EC: Posterior and ascendingoccipital - posterior auricular (stylomastoid) - ascending pharyngeal (meningeal branches)
EC: Terminal, superficial temporaltransverse facial - middle temporal (zygomaticorbital) - anterior auricular - frontal - parietal
EC: Terminal, maxillary1st part: anterior tympanic - deep auricular - middle meningeal (superior tympanic) - accessory meningeal - inferior alveolar (mylohyoid)
2nd part: deep temporal - pterygoid branches - masseteric - buccal
3rd part: posterior superior alveolar - infraorbital (anterior superior alveolar) - descending palatine - artery of the pterygoid canal - sphenopalatine
CC, IC: portions #1 and 2cervical portion - petrous portion (Vidian, caroticotympanic)
IC: cavernous portion/ophthalmicorbital group: lacrimal - supraorbital - posterior ethmoidal - anterior ethmoidal - medial palpebral - supratrochlear - dorsal nasal
ocular group: central retinal - ciliary (short posterior, long posterior, anterior) - superior hypophysial - inferior hypophyseal
IC: cerebral portionACA - anterior communicating - MCA (anterolateral central) - posterior communicating - anterior choroidal - circle of Willis
SUBCLAVIAN: vertebralmeningeal branches - posterior spinal - anterior spinal - PICA - basilar (pontine - labyrinthine - AICA - SCA - PCA)
SUBCLAVIAN: thyrocervicalinferior thyroid (inferior laryngeal, tracheal, esophageal, ascending cervical) - suprascapular - transverse cervical - dorsal scapular
The ophthalmic artery is a branch of the internal carotid artery which supplies branches to supply the eye and other structures in the orbit.

Branches

The branches of the ophthalmic artery are often subdivided into an orbital group and an ocular group [1] .
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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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For the moth genus, see Retina (moth).


The retina is a thin layer of neural cells that lines the back of the eyeball of vertebrates and some cephalopods. It is comparable to the film in a camera.
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The ophthalmic artery is a branch of the internal carotid artery which supplies branches to supply the eye and other structures in the orbit.

Branches

The branches of the ophthalmic artery are often subdivided into an orbital group and an ocular group [1] .
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The central retinal vein (retinal vein) is a short vein that runs through the optic nerve and drains blood from the capillaries of the retina into the larger veins outside the eye.
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Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. Created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it is used by the MEDLINE/PubMed
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Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of medical and scientific literature, forms part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has substantial operations in the UK, USA and elsewhere.
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The ophthalmic artery is a branch of the internal carotid artery which supplies branches to supply the eye and other structures in the orbit.

Branches

The branches of the ophthalmic artery are often subdivided into an orbital group and an ocular group [1] .
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Optic Nerve may be a reference to:
  • Optic nerve, the anatomical structure;
  • Optic Nerve (comic), the comic book series;
  • Optic Nerve (1998), the seminal release from the Irish hip hop act known as Exile Eye; or

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Dura may refer to:
  • Dura language, a critically endangered language of Nepal
  • Dura Automotive Systems, an American automotive company
  • Dura Convertible Systems, a American automotive company
  • Dura-Europos, an ancient city located in modern-day Syria

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Eyes are organs of vision that detect light. Different kinds of light-sensitive organs are found in a variety of organisms. The simplest eyes do nothing but detect whether the surroundings are light or dark, while more complex eyes can distinguish shapes and colors.
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For the moth genus, see Retina (moth).


The retina is a thin layer of neural cells that lines the back of the eyeball of vertebrates and some cephalopods. It is comparable to the film in a camera.
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The pupil (Latin pupilla "little doll" > pupa "doll") is the variable-sized, black circular or slit shaped opening in the center of the iris that regulates the amount of light that enters the eye.
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The lens is a transparent, biconvex (lentil-shaped) structure in the eye that, along with the cornea, helps to refract light to be focused on the retina. Its function is thus similar to a human-made optical lens.
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macula or macula lutea (from Latin macula, "spot" + lutea, "yellow") is an oval yellow spot near the center of the retina of the human eye. It has a diameter of about 1.5 mm and is often histologically defined as having two or more layers of ganglion cells.
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fovea, also known as the fovea centralis, is a part of the eye, located in the center of the macula region of the retina. [1] [2] The fovea is responsible for sharp central vision, which is necessary in humans for reading, watching television or movies,
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The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain, containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1 (visual one).
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cerebral cortex is a structure within the vertebrate brain with distinct structural and functional properties. In non-living, preserved brains, the outermost layers of the cerebrum has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter".
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Photoreceptor can refer to:

In anatomy/cell biology:
  • Photoreceptor cell: a photosensitive cell, most commonly referring to a specialized type of neuron found in the retina of vertebrate eyes that is capable of phototransduction;

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eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base that was founded in 1996 by Scott Plantz and Richard Lavely, two medical doctors. It was sold to WebMD in January 2006.
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eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base that was founded in 1996 by Scott Plantz and Richard Lavely, two medical doctors. It was sold to WebMD in January 2006.
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Arteries are muscular blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.[1] All arteries, with the exception of the pulmonary and umbilical arteries, carry oxygenated blood.

The circulatory system is extremely important for sustaining life.
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Head and neck anatomy focuses on the structures of the head and neck of the human body, including the brain, bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, glands, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, and throat.
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In human anatomy, the common carotid artery is an artery that supplies the head and neck with oxygenated blood; it divides in the neck to form the external and internal carotid arteries.
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In human anatomy, the external carotid artery is a major artery of the head and neck. It arises from the common carotid artery when it bifurcates into an internal and external branch.
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The superior thyroid artery arises from the external carotid artery just below the level of the greater cornu of the hyoid bone and ends in the thyroid gland.

Relations


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The superior laryngeal artery accompanies the internal laryngeal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve, beneath the Thyreohyoideus.

It pierces the hyothyroid membrane, and supplies the muscles, mucous membrane, and glands of the larynx, anastomosing with the branch from
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The lingual artery arises from the external carotid between the superior thyroid and facial artery.

It first runs obliquely upward and medialward to the greater cornu of the hyoid bone.
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The Sublingual Artery arises at the anterior margin of the Hyoglossus, and runs forward between the Genioglossus and Mylohyoideus to the sublingual gland.

It supplies the gland and gives branches to the Mylohyoideus and neighboring muscles, and to the mucous membrane of the
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The facial artery (external maxillary artery in older texts) is a branch of the external carotid artery that supplies structures of the face.

Structure

The facial artery arises in the carotid triangle from the external carotid artery a little above the lingual
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