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Basic Anatomy Terms & Systems

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Your Body’s Systems

Your body is made up of many systems, each having their own vital parts that work together. This list represents your bodily systems and the specific parts that comprise them: [more…]

Finding Your Way around Your Body

When you develop a new health problem in a particular area of your body, it can help to know which structures are beneath your skin. The following diagrams give you some clues. [more…]

Clinical Anatomy Terms to Describe the Eight Body Regions

In clinical anatomy the body is divided into eight regions. To understand how those anatomical regions relate to one another requires you to learn the terminology. Imagine the body standing in the following [more…]

Clinical Anatomy Terms that Describe Body Movement


The Anatomy of Skin

The largest organ of your body is your skin (known as integument in the world of clinical anatomy). It includes the outer covering that protects your inside parts from the elements and from viruses and [more…]

A Clinical Look at Bone Composition and Structure

Your bones contain a matrix, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes, and collagen fibers. Bones are hard structures because of the calcium that builds up in the matrix, but they retain a slight amount of [more…]

Clinical Anatomy Terms Describing Joints and Cartilage


A Clinical Overview of Muscle Types


A Clinical Overview of the Nervous System

The nervous system is the control center for your body. It interprets the things your body senses, and it sends information to the muscles and glands, telling them what to do. It also runs the systems [more…]

What Organs Are Part of the Lymphatic System?


Clinical Overview of the Immune System

The immune system works hard to defend you from pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. It’s made up of leukocytes (white blood cells), proteins, and other tissues, including the lymphatic system. When [more…]

How Does Your Digestive System Break Down Food?

The function of the digestive system is to take food into your body, break it down into individual macronutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) and micronutrients [more…]

How the Urinary System Removes Waste

The urinary system filters waste from the blood and produces urine in the kidneys; then it removes the urine from the body. Adults produce about a quart and a half of urine every day, but that amount can [more…]

The Anatomy of Human Lungs


What Is in the Thoracic Cavities?

The thoracic cavity is basically the chest, including everything between the neck and the diaphragm. It’s home to the thoracic organs and is protected by the thoracic cage. The heart and lungs are essential [more…]

The Anatomy of the Human Heart

The heart is a muscular four-chambered pump that beats constantly to keep blood flowing to the rest of your body. To make it’s workings easier to understand, clinical anatomy breaks the heart into three [more…]

What Is the Inguinal Region?

Clinical anatomy defines the inguinal region of the abdominal wall as the area between the anterior superior iliac spine and the pubic tubercle (in other words, the groin or lower lateral parts of the [more…]

The Anatomy of the Abdominal Wall

The abdominal wall is mainly made up of muscles and the tissues that support them. They combine with the spinal column to give the midsection its structure. The abdominal muscles cover the front and sides [more…]

How do the Stomach and Esophagus Process Food?

The food you eat makes its way to your stomach via the esophagus. It officially enters the abdomen when it passes through the esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm. The esophagus ends at the esophagogastric [more…]

The Physiology of the Small and Large Intestines

The digestive system processes the food you eat. Food travels via the esophagus into the stomach and then into the small and large intestines. The small intestine starts at the pylorus of the stomach and [more…]

Renal Anatomy

Renal anatomy refers to anatomy of the kidneys. The two kidneys filter the blood and form urine, which is transported to the urinary bladder by the ureters. Each kidney is capped by a suprarenal gland, [more…]

The Anatomy of the Perineum


Anatomy of the Brain: The Meninges

The meninges are the coverings of the brain. They protect the brain by housing a fluid-filled space, and they function as a framework for blood vessels. The meninges have three layers: the dura mater, [more…]

The Anatomy of the Human Brain


An Overview of the Oral Cavity



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