A specific course on sectional anatomy was developed to help medical studen
ts improve their knowledge of cross-sectional imaging. The educational meth
odology consists of identifying anatomical structures displayed in plastina
ted 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 an
atomy on radiological knowledge, students were asked to identify ten anatom
ical structures in CT images. This lest was applied to two groups of studen
ts: 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 r
esults provide evidence that the inclusion of sectional anatomy training in
medical school curricula has a great impact on subsequent CT interpretatio
n. Clin. Anat. 14.36-41, 2001. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.