Anatomy for Radiology: Chest

It is useful to be familiar with basic chest anatomy when analyzing chest x-ray or chest CT images. First I’ll do an intro to the different organs and structures in the chest, and then I’ll go over some images showing their locations.

Organs & Structures of the Chest

Heart. The heart is a four-chambered organ that pumps deoxygenated blood through the lungs and pumps oxygenated blood through the body.

Atria (right atrium and left atrium): the small, upper chambers of the heart

Ventricles (right ventricle and left ventricle): the large, lower chambers of the heart

Superior vena cava and inferior vena cava: big veins that carry deoxygenated blood into the heart. The superior vena cava comes down from above and the inferior vena cava comes up from beneath.

Aorta: the big artery that carries oxygenated blood to the body

Lungs: organs that add oxygen to the blood and remove carbon dioxide from the blood. (They are not hollow; they have a spongy consistency to enable massive surface area. The total surface area of your lungs is about the same as the surface area of one side of a tennis court.)

Right upper lobe & left upper lobe (also called the superior lobes)

Right middle lobe & lingula: the right lung has a middle lobe, and the left lung has what’s called the “lingula” (“tongue”) which is a tiny version of the middle lobe