A small, circumscribed area visibly different in colour or texture from the surrounding tissue.
baring of the blind spot A visual field defect in which there is such a marked contraction of the peripheral temporal visual field that it lies on, or nasal to, the blind spot. Although it may occur in open-angle glaucoma, it is not indicative of the disease as it also occurs in other conditions (e.g. miosis).
See Bjerrum's scotoma.
Bitot's spot Foamy patch found on the bulbar conjunctiva near the limbus in xerophthalmia and due to vitamin A deficiency.
Syn. Bitot's patch.
blind spot Physiological negative scotoma in the visual field corresponding to the head of the optic nerve. It is not seen in binocular vision, as the two blind spots do not correspond in the field. In monocular vision it is usually not noticed. It has the shape of an ellipse with its long axis vertical and measuring approximately 7.5º, whereas its shorter axis along the horizontal measures approximately 5.5º. Its centre is located 15.5º to the temporal side of the centre of the visual field and 1.5º below the horizontal meridian.
Syn. blind spot of Mariotte; physiological blind spot; punctum caecum (Fig. S11).
See myelinated nerve fibres;
retinal image.
blind spot enlargement A visual field defect in which the blind spot appears larger than normal. One of the common causes is papilloedema.
blind spot esotropia; syndrome See Swann's syndrome.
cherry-red spot Bright red appearance of the macular area in an eye with occlusion of the central retinal artery, Tay-Sachs disease or Niemann-Pick disease. In the case of central retinal artery occlusion the surrounding area is white due to ischaemia but the reddish reflex from the intact choroidal vessels beneath the fovea shows at that spot since the retina is thinnest there. There is a very marked, if not complete, loss of vision which appears suddenly. In cases of storage disease (i.e. Niemann-Pick or Tay-Sachs), the area surrounding the fovea is artificially whitened and opaque, offsetting the normal pinkish colour of the fovea (Fig. S12).
See Niemann-Pick disease;
Sandhoff's disease;
Tay-Sachs disease;
retinal arterial occlusion.
cotton-wool s'spot See cytoid bodies;
exudate.
Elschnig's s'spot Small, yellowish spots found in the fundus in advanced hypertensive retinopathy. They are choroidal infarcts caused by insufficient blood supply.
Fuchs'spot A round or elliptical, pigmented spot, usually located in the macular or paramacular area. It occurs in patients who have pathological myopia. It is due to breaks in Bruch's membrane (called
lacquer cracks) and to the development of a choroidal neovascular membrane followed by subretinal haemorrhage which has changed colour and has become pigmented. The patient may notice photopsia when the membrane breaks but eventually it causes a loss of vision with a central scotoma.
Syn. Forster-Fuchs spot.
Maxwell's spot Entopic phenomenon in which the subject can observe a dark or greyish spot in the visual field corresponding to this fovea. This is accomplished by viewing a diffusely illuminated field through a purple-blue or dark blue filter. (These are the best colours for this observation.) This phenomenon is used clinically to detect eccentric fixation by placing a fixation point in the diffusely illuminated field. The degree of eccentric fixation can thus be estimated by asking the subject to describe the position of the grey spot with respect to the fixation point.
See entoptic image.
Roth's spot A small white spot consisting of coagulated fibrin seen in the middle of a retinal haemorrhage. It is associated with leukaemia, but it can be seen in subacute bacterial endocarditis, diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and vascular conditions with capillary fragility.


Fig. S11 Demonstration of the blind spot


Fig. S12 Cherry-red spot at the macula