Coronal plane

Coronal plane
The main anatomical planes of the human body, including sagittal or median (red), parasagittal (yellow), frontal or coronal plane (blue) and transverse or axial plane (green)
Details
Identifiers
Latin	plana coronalia
TA98	A01.2.00.001
TA2	48
FMA	12246
Anatomical terminology

A coronal plane (also known as the frontal plane) is any vertical plane that divides the body into ventral and dorsal (belly and back) sections.

It is one of the three main planes of the body used to describe the location of body parts in relation to each other axis.

Details

The coronal plane is an example of a longitudinal plane, because it is perpendicular to the transverse plane. For a human, the mid-coronal plane would transect a standing body into two halves (front and back, or anterior and posterior) in an imaginary line that cuts through both shoulders. The description of the coronal plane applies to most animals as well as humans even though humans walk upright and the various planes are usually shown in the vertical orientation.

The sternal plane (planum sternale) is a coronal plane which transects the front of the sternum.^[1]

Etymology

The term is derived from Latin corona ('garland, crown'), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korōnē, 'garland, wreath'). The coronal plane is so-called because it lies in the direction of Coronal suture.

Additional images

• 
  Sectional Planes of the Brain
• 
  Identical twins at a gestational age of 15 weeks, shown in coronal and sagittal plane, respectively
• 
  Sagittal Section (top) Vs. coronal section (bottom) of a mouse brain

See also

• Anatomical terms of location
• Sagittal plane
• Transverse plane

References

External links

• "Anatomical Orientation - Page 2 of 9". University of Michigan Medical School. Archived from the original on 2007-11-23.