Costophrenic angle
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Image:Chest x-ray.jpg
Frontal chest X-ray. Here the patient's right costophrenic angle can be clearly seen in the lower-left corner of the image, and the patient's left costophrenic angle is in the lower-right corner but actually is cut off by the bottom of the image. (Chest X-rays are displayed as if the patient is facing the viewer, so left and right are flipped.)
In anatomy, the costophrenic angles are the places where the diaphragms (-phrenic) meet the ribs (costo-).
Each costophrenic angle can normally be seen as on chest X-ray as a sharply-pointed, downward indentation (dark) between each hemi-diaphragm (white) and the adjacent chest wall (white). A small portion of each lung normally reaches into the costophrenic angle.
With pleural effusion, fluid often builds up in the costophrenic angle (due to gravity). This can push the lung upwards, resulting in "blunting" of costophrenic angle.
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