artery vs vein vs nerve

[pezzang]

i am having trouble distinguishing among them. generally, veins are thinner and have darker colors but are there any way to distinguish them other than by relative location in respect to surrounding organs?

Also, i sometimes can't differentiate nerve vs artery. arteries have lumen and have thicker, more muscular wall but, by observation alone, what are other tips to distiniguish them? For example, how would you differentiate ulnar neve vs ulnar artery in the palm region without its respective location (n is more medial)?

I have anatomy practical soon and I realized that I am some trouble with this. Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated!🙂

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[pezzang]

Also, how do you distinguish between palmar lumbricals and interosseous muscles?

 

[MeRLin443]

Also, how do you distinguish between palmar lumbricals and interosseous muscles?

This one's easy, b/c lumbricals originate from flexor sheath and not bone. As for your first question, I've never had a question that asks to differentiate b/w the 3 b/c when they dry out they all look the same, and new prosections are hard to come by.

 

[zero the hero]

Artery vs. vein - On cadavers, veins tend to be collapsed/flattened, whereas arteries are not. So if I ever saw anything flattened I thought vein. Also, arteries can be curved and wiggly (higher strength of the arteries allow them to maintain this shape).Veins will never be like this because they are collapsed.

Nerves - A little harder, but I always figured it out by just following the nerve along the body as far as I could. I could then tell where it came off from, which helped. Also, in my experience they tended to be smaller than the major arteries/veins (with some exceptions).

In general, it helps to follow the artery/vein/nerve along the body to see where they come from and where they go to, it gives you more clues as to what you are looking at.

Good luck!

 

[bleeker10]

Also a way I differentiate arteries is that some of the bigger ones have vasa vasorum, which are small vessels feeding the walls of the artery. It kind of looks like small red threads wrapping around the artery. For nerves, I just look for something yellow, shiny, and flat. Even though veins are collapsed, they tend to still have a rounded appearance whereas nerves seem more rectangular

 

[turkeyjerky]

nerves vs. arteries can be tough, and your best bet is to track them back up to see the branching patterns. If you can't do that (often the case, unfortunately), nerves are usually straighter whereas arteries tend to have a more torturous appearance.

 

[ChiDO]

Veins are easy; they are dark.

Artery vs. Nerve: you have to see where it is coming from or going to as they look identical. IF you were allowed to touch them (which in practicals you are not), you could tell when you squeeze them..but for a practical, your best bet is to trace them (which will be shown/provided).

 

[SirGecko]

The best way to tell the difference is to just know where you are in the body and know what the relationships are. (nothing is more important in anatomy and you can always figure out what you are looking at if you know relationships) If it really is ambiguous my school would phrase the question to be "what is this nerve?" but that very rarely happens because you can usually demonstrate exactly what it is with relationships.

That said, some tips to answer your actual question: (telling the difference san's relationships)

Veins: usually people won't tag these on a practical unless it is big or clinically important. Big veins (vena cava, azygous vein, portal vein, etc) are pretty obvious. (large, flater, usually darker, distinct location) Smaller veins that would be tagged would probably be more like the great saphenous vein or something similar that follows a distinctive course. (and is useful in clinical practice) I doubt anyone would tag a vein that just follows an artery of the same name. (they had us take those out for the most part)

Arteries and Nerves: besides the stuff you already said (arteries have lumens, are more round, etc) another way to tell just by looking at it is the branching. Nerves will tend to branch at more acute angles while arteries will branch closer to right angles.

Really though relationships are the way to go. Cannot stress that enough.

 

[DrYoda]

Really though relationships are the way to go. Cannot stress that enough.

Agree with this.

Aside from that I tell by nerves being flatter and less compressable.

 

[SB100]

Definitely need to look at relationships. Veins are easy to separate out from arteries and nerves, but once you get down to it it's all about tracing their paths and knowing from the images imprinted in your head.

 

[reedman]

just remember that the thoracic duct always looks like something else. at least it does to me.

if you have really spent enough time looking at the bodies you will usually know exactly what you are looking at. look at several bodies. i learned this the hard way on the first practical. netters only gets you 70% there.

and yeah, relationships are your best friend.

nerves are white. arteries are round. veins are flat. lymph nodes tend to be kinda round, shiny, and dark. ganglia look like lumps of fat. plexi look like random debris on top of whatever the relation is, ie aortic plexus.

 

[beachblonde]

arteries frequently have a "tortuous" look to them, and hence are not quite as smooth and sleek as nerves are.

it sounds like for your practical, knowing relationships will be key. such as, what's deep and what's superficial to certain muscles and so forth. if you can get your hands on it, Rohen's atlas is great for practical prep. Much better than Netter's.

and will this even really be required of you on your practical? our questions only have on category per question, so if it says "what structure?" all the answers will be arteries or nerves, never both. and thank goodness for that!

 

[bambi]

Like others have said nerves are yellow/white. Also, if you look very closely the have very very thin little lines running the length of the nerve over the whole surface. Can't really think of a better way to describe it but if you see it you will know what I mean.

 

[blue pajamas]

Yeah, looking for the striation marks on nerves was the main way I ever figured out nerve vs. artery. It also helps to keep in mind what your location is-if you can't decide artery vs. nerve you can see if it pierces any muscles that the nerve would innervate.

 

[abmd]

yeah definitely look at relationships in grays/dissector/atlas. arteries are springy so if you push down on it it will bounce back. veins often have blood in them and are hard. nerves often have a stringy look to them and are flatter while arteries have a space. hope that helps

 

[MaseratiGT]

Like some people have told you already, RELATIONSHIPS are the key.

If structures had a specific relation to each other, for example VAN, our anatomy instructors would sometimes just ask to IDENTIFY.

From what I remember, COA has good verbal descriptions of these relationships. Pair it with a good atlas to see how the structures should be seen in the body. GL

 

[Mackey]

The best way to tell the difference is to just know where you are in the body and know what the relationships are. (nothing is more important in anatomy and you can always figure out what you are looking at if you know relationships) If it really is ambiguous my school would phrase the question to be "what is this nerve?" but that very rarely happens because you can usually demonstrate exactly what it is with relationships.

That said, some tips to answer your actual question: (telling the difference san's relationships)

Veins: usually people won't tag these on a practical unless it is big or clinically important. Big veins (vena cava, azygous vein, portal vein, etc) are pretty obvious. (large, flater, usually darker, distinct location) Smaller veins that would be tagged would probably be more like the great saphenous vein or something similar that follows a distinctive course. (and is useful in clinical practice) I doubt anyone would tag a vein that just follows an artery of the same name. (they had us take those out for the most part)

Arteries and Nerves: besides the stuff you already said (arteries have lumens, are more round, etc) another way to tell just by looking at it is the branching. Nerves will tend to branch at more acute angles while arteries will branch closer to right angles.

Really though relationships are the way to go. Cannot stress that enough.

I clicked this thread just to say this exact post...

Then I saw "go navy."

I assume we go to the same school.

Seyfer did enjoy relationships, didn't he?

 

[VenusinFurs]

if you have really spent enough time looking at the bodies you will usually know exactly what you are looking at. look at several bodies. i learned this the hard way on the first practical. netters only gets you 70% there.

This was the only way I could get anything right, usually. Things just "look" a certain way. I had to spend ridic. amounts of time in the lab just learning to recognize things in order to not totally bomb the practical. And this is why I didn't like anatomy practicals one bit.

 

[SirGecko]

I clicked this thread just to say this exact post...

Then I saw "go navy."

I assume we go to the same school.

Seyfer did enjoy relationships, didn't he?

Hah, yep he sure did!

 

[Forthegood]

Location, Location, Location! Some parts of the body are remarkable for Army over Navy (artery over nerve) or other useful mnemonics. Tom, dick, and very nervous harry (medial maleolus) is another good one.

The rest of the body sucks. Nerves are thick, stiff, shiny structures, and veins are flat and feel loose. Arteries are anything that are not one of those two. It is easiest to distinguish though by their location and branching. The only place you can really get in trouble on a cadaver is in the posteriosuperior leg and pelvis and in the distal extremities.

The palmar and dorsal interossei are distinguished in the hand because, really, you can't see the dorsal interossei from the palmar surface and vice-versa. I mean, you would really have to get in there and DIG to find them, passing fascia, muscle, artery,vein, bone... or destroying all of those guys. Of course, if they tagged it on an exam, use what I call your "histological imagination" and think about how deep the structure is. Past the bone? Before the bone?

The foot is worse, but usually an easier exposure... so you can somewhat rely on location and direction of fibers, and also use your imagination.

 

[tigerLSU]

red, blue, yellow.

 

[pseudorosette]

to me, nerves look like the white part of a candy cane (if they're fresh). someone else said they look like they have little lines in them; that's a good description. they look a bit like tendon that way (probably why big flat tendons are called aponeuroses).

however after they've dried out they look exactly the same as everything else-semi-transparent, amber, and stiff. 🙁

and like everyone else said, look for relationships. those are gonna be key. for example, in the intercostal space you should see vein, artery, and nerve from top to bottom. in the suprascapular notch you should see the nerve passing through the foramen formed by the superior transverse ligament, but the artery should pass over this ligament. stuff like that 🙂

 

[Navalaviator]

The best way to tell the difference is to just know where you are in the body and know what the relationships are. (nothing is more important in anatomy and you can always figure out what you are looking at if you know relationships) If it really is ambiguous my school would phrase the question to be "what is this nerve?" but that very rarely happens because you can usually demonstrate exactly what it is with relationships.

That said, some tips to answer your actual question: (telling the difference san's relationships)

Veins: usually people won't tag these on a practical unless it is big or clinically important. Big veins (vena cava, azygous vein, portal vein, etc) are pretty obvious. (large, flater, usually darker, distinct location) Smaller veins that would be tagged would probably be more like the great saphenous vein or something similar that follows a distinctive course. (and is useful in clinical practice) I doubt anyone would tag a vein that just follows an artery of the same name. (they had us take those out for the most part)

Arteries and Nerves: besides the stuff you already said (arteries have lumens, are more round, etc) another way to tell just by looking at it is the branching. Nerves will tend to branch at more acute angles while arteries will branch closer to right angles.

Really though relationships are the way to go. Cannot stress that enough.

As a professor of Anatomy, this is an excellent post!

 

[p30doc]

by taste 😛, this test works even better for diabetes