The value of teaching sectional anatomy to improve CT scan interpretation.

A specific course on sectional anatomy was developed to help medical students improve their knowledge of cross-sectional imaging. The educational methodology consists of identifying anatomical structures displayed in plastinated sections from human cadavers and corresponding anatomical structures in computed tomography (CT) sections from healthy patients. The course has a self-study format. To assess and verify the impact of learning sectional anatomy on radiological knowledge, students were asked to identify ten anatomical structures in CT images. This test was applied to two groups of students: Group I had been taught sectional anatomy with CT images 2 years before the test; Group II had not received instruction in sectional anatomy prior to the test. Analysis of the results revealed a significant difference in test scores (median percentages of correctly identified structures) between Group I and Group II, with scores of 100% and 63.4%, respectively. These results provide evidence that the inclusion of sectional anatomy training in medical school curricula has a great impact on subsequent CT interpretation. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.