Cherry stain
A cherry spot is a finding on the retina of the eye characteristic of certain metabolic disorders associated with lipid disorder or central retinal artery occlusion. It is a small red round spot in the fovea centralis. The visibility of the spot is due to the relative transparency of the retina at the site of the fovea centralis, which, unlike the surrounding retina, does not contain all the cell layers, and so the red blood-permeable choroid shines through (with increased deposition of scattered material in the layers of the surrounding retina). With retinal artery occlusion, the stain is visible because the choroid is supplied by choroidal arteries, unlike the retina, which is pale due to retinal artery occlusion.
- Cherry spot appears in the following metabolic diseases
- cytochrome C oxidase deficiency;
- galactosialidosis (neuraminidase deficiency);
- GM1 gangliosidosis (Landing's disease);
- GM2 gangliosidosis (Sandhoff's, Tay-Sachs disease);
- nephrosialidosis;
- Niemann-Pick disease types A, B and C;
- sialidosis type I.
Cherry spot - occlusion of the retinal artery centralis
Cherry spot - Tay-Sachs
