Anatomical Planes & Sections - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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1
concept
Anatomical Planes
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4m
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As you learn anatomy, of course, the body is this highly complex three dimensional structure. But we often look at representations of the body that are in two dimensions. So we often divide the body along two dimensional planes. And that's for dissection imaging diagrams, whatever these planes by which we divide the body, we call anatomical planes. And we're gonna have some very specific ways that we refer to them. Anatomical planes are just these imaginary lines used to divide the body. We're gonna have four major planes that we're going to learn. Now, three of them just cut along the xy and Z axis. And then the fourth one is just a little bit of a wild card. So let's go through them. Now, one by one, first up, we have the frontal plane, the frontal plane divides the anterior and posterior. So here we have an anatomical model and you can see the frontal plane kind of divides him, his front from his back. And you can remember the frontal plane because if you look at the plane, the frontal plane, you're looking at it from the front, the frontal plane shows the front. Next, we're gonna have a sagittal plane, the sagittal plane divides the left oops left and right side of the body. And if you look at this anatomical model in this diagram, you see that this plane is going sort of right down through his nose front to back, separating his two sides. Now, we're gonna have two varieties of this sagittal plane. First, we have what we see in the diagram that's a midsagittal plane, midsagittal plane that prefix mid, it goes through the mid line, right through the nose, right through the belly button, et cetera. Now, if it's not on that midline, you have a parasag plane. So a parasag plane divides the body left and right, but not in perfect halves. So we just say here, not on the midline. Now, our way to remember a sagittal plane, a sagittal plane separates the sides of the body. And if you're to look at a sagittal plane, you look at the body from the side. So let's look at our final two planes here, our final two planes. Well, first, we have transverse, transverse divides the superior and inferior. And we have an anatomical model here and there's the plane going sort of through his waist, separating his top and lower halves. Now, transverse, that plane could cut anywhere in the body from the toes all the way up to the nose or to the top of the head really. But the point is t for transverse cuts off the top of the body transverse is a horizontal plane that separates the top from the bottom. Now, finally, we said we had one wild card. That wild card is the oblique plane. The oblique plane is just if it's not one of those first three, it's oblique and that means it divides on some angle. So here we have a man standing and this plane is cutting sort of from close to the shoulder down to the hip, right? It could be any way. But if it's not on a perfect xy or Z axis, then it's an oblique plane. Now oblique will make an oblong. Ok. The cut from an oblique plane is, it's kind of a, a longer, it's usually like some weird oval shape in the body. It doesn't look like a standard cut through the body because it's not on the normal axis. OK. With that, those are our four major planes. We're gonna practice them some more. And then we're gonna look at what the body looks like when we cut the planes different ways that's gonna be called anatomical sections and we'll see you there.
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example
Anatomical Planes & Sections Example 1
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2m
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This example, wants to know what type of plane our planes intersect both ears and we have a picture of an anatomical model for reference. And it has the three planes drawn on here in orange, blue and pink on the xy and Z axis. All right. So why don't you just take a second and think if you want to cut through both ears, what types of planes could do it? All right. Well, first off, remember as we look at these planes in the model, right? These planes don't have to be exactly where they are in the body. They have to stay on the same axis, but they could move up and down or left and right or front or back, depending on what the plane is. So, with that in mind, I'm gonna think the different ways that I could cut my body and cut through both ears. Well, I could cut the top off, right, just a horizontal plane right through my head that would cut through both ears, separate the top from the bottom. What type of plane separates the top from the bottom t top t transverse. All right. Another way I could do it, I could cut and separate my front from my back. If I cut down this way, if I cut down this way and separate my front from my back, what type of plane would that be front is the frontal plane? And then the other major plane sort of comes at you straight on and separates your left and your right. So would that cut both ears? No, that would be a sagittal plane because it's separating the sides because the ears are on both sides, you can't cut through both of the sale plane. So I feel very good about transverse and frontal. Now, the final plane we said was oblique. Now, I'm gonna put oblique in parentheses. You certainly could make an oblique plane that cuts through both ears. Uh right. You could do all sorts of different angles that happen to hit both ears. Now, however, if I were grading this as a test question, I wouldn't grade oblique right or wrong either way. So with that more practice problems below and I'll see you in the next video.
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Problem
Problem
What type of plane is shown in the image to the right?
A
Transverse.
B
Frontal.
C
Sagittal.
D
Oblique.
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Problem
Problem
You are asked to draw a plane that intersects only one leg. What type of plane could you draw?
A
Transverse.
B
Frontal.
C
Parasagittal.
D
Both A and C.
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Problem
Problem
Imagine a plane through the leg. If the shape formed where the leg intersects the plane is roughly a circle, what type of plane could make that shape?
A
Transverse.
B
Frontal.
C
Sagittal.
D
both A and C could be correct depending on where the plane crosses the leg.
6
concept
Anatomical Sections
Video duration:
2m
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We said that we use anatomical planes to slice the body along different axis. But of course, we're usually slicing the body so that we can look at it. The thing that you look at is called an anatomical section. You can think of it like a cross section of the body. Now, a section is created when an image is taken or a cut is made along a plane and we're gonna give it, give our sections those same names that we gave to the anatomical planes. We're gonna have the three major axes and then we're gonna have that one wild card. So let's take a look at what we have here. This first image is showing an outline of what looks like the abdomen and the hips and the pelvic area. I can see what looks like the pelvis here, some internal organs looks like some ribs up here on the sides. This looks like I am looking at the body from the front because it's from the front. I know that is a frontal section. The next one says that it's a sale section and it looks like I am looking at the body from the side, I can see a profile of the abdomen and again, that pelvic area. And importantly, here, I see the spine right there and some internal organs in the front. But because I see that spine, I feel like this cut is probably going right down the midline of the body because it's going down the midline. I can see that this is a mid sagittal cut. Now, Saville always trips me up. It's got two Ts in it. Try to remember that. Finally, we have this last one and this last one, we have this round image of the body and I can see what looks like some vertebrae here in the back and then some organs in the front. This looks like I'm looking down on the body from the top top starts with T and so does transverse. You can recognize a transverse section because it usually looks kind of round most of the body. If you're looking at it from the top, looks kind of like an over or a circle. Now, you'll note that we didn't show oblique here. Oblique is, it's kind of hard to find one representative image that really makes it clear that you're looking at an oblique cut. Now, because of that, if you get a test question and it asks you to identify an oblique section, it should be really obvious that it's oblique. If it's not really obvious that it's an oblique section, it's almost certainly gonna be frontal sagittal or transverse. OK. With that, let's go practice looking at some sections.
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example
Anatomical Planes & Sections Example 2
Video duration:
1m
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This question asked me to identify the type of section represented in each image of the brain. All right, let's look at the first one. OK. So this looks like a slice of the brain where I'm looking down at it from the top. So it has a round shape there and it looks like the top of the head has been sliced down. And I'm just looking straight down on it now because I've said top, you're looking at it from the top. I said top starts with T and so does transverse, this looks like a transverse section. And we said that transverse sections will usually be nice and round because that's kind of the shape of the body if you're looking at it from the top. OK. Our next one here, you can see the round top of the head and then it comes down sort of straight on each side and I can kind of see the eye sockets right there with the brain in the middle. Now, this looks like I am looking at it from the front. Uh If I'm looking at it from the front, that's a frontal section. And then finally, we have the, the head here. It looks like I'm looking at it kind of in profile. We have the nice round shape of the head. This looks like the front where the nose would be. And so because I'm looking at it in profile, I'm looking at it from the side. So that is going to be a sagittal, a sagittal section now because I'm looking at it from the side, we can add to this. I don't see the eyes here, right? So it looks like it's down through the middle between the eyes. And I'm confident of that too because of some of the structures in the brain because I, I know my anatomy of the brain. For example, I can see the corpus callosum here. So that tells me that this looks like it's right through the middle of the head, the midline of the body. And so I'm gonna put my prefix on this. This one is a mid cut. OK. We've identified our sections. Let's try some practice problems below.
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Problem
Problem
Imagine you are a doctor. You suspect your patient has an enlarged thyroid, so you order the following MRI scan of the neck. The image that was taken represents what type of section?
A
Frontal.
B
Transverse.
C
Sagittal.
D
Oblique.
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Problem
Problem
The CT scan on the right represents what type of section?
A
Frontal.
B
Parasagittal.
C
Sagittal.
D
Transverse.
10
Problem
Problem
What type of section does this MRI show and how do you know?
A
Frontal because the front of the face can be identified.
B
Parasagittal because the eye, which is not on the centerline, is visible.
C
Midsagittal because it's from the side and we can see the middle of the head.
D
Transverse because the head is near the top of the body.
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