Veterinary Medical Terminology and Anatomy
This domain tests the terminology and spatial anatomy that appear in every record and procedure: directional terms, body planes, word roots, and normal species anatomy.
Core rules
- Directional terms use the patient's standing anatomic position. Cranial means toward the head and caudal toward the tail in the trunk; rostral is toward the nose only on the head. Dorsal is toward the spine, ventral toward the sternum or belly. Medial is toward midline, lateral away from it. Proximal is toward the limb's attachment, distal toward the paw. The front paw surface is palmar; the hind paw surface is plantar.
- Planes: median divides left and right; sagittal is parallel to median; dorsal is horizontal; transverse is a cross-section.
- Suffixes: -otomy is a cut into, -ectomy is removal, -ostomy is a surgically created opening, -itis is inflammation, -penia is deficiency, -megaly is enlargement.
Worked example
A note reads “cranioventral abdominal mass, left lateral to the prepuce.” Cranial, not rostral, is correct because the trunk is being described. Ventral places the mass near the abdominal wall. Left means the patient's left, which appears on the viewer's right on a standard VD radiograph. Lateral to the prepuce narrows the location off midline. The technician can prepare a ventral midline approach but should expect the mass may be approached from the left side.
Traps
Using rostral for the whole body, mixing patient and viewer left, calling the trunk proximal, and swapping palmar and plantar all lose marks. Confirm whether a description is from the patient's or imager's perspective.