An imaging plane, perpendicular to the ground, the coronal plane separates the anterior from the posterior part (the front from the back).

A C-scan ultrasound can be displayed in 2D or 3D ultrasound technique. C-scan systems can generate images which are parallel to the surface of the skin (coronal). 2D plane images, usually in gray scale, are recordable at different depths, maintaining high quality subsurface information.

(MPR) Multiplanar Reconstruction is a post processing technique for reformatting of a 3D data set at any angle; reconstructing e.g. the axial images into coronal, sagittal and oblique anatomical planes.

If available, some graphic aids can be helpful to show image orientations.
1) A graphic icon of the labeled primary axes (A, L, H) with relative lengths given by direction sines and orientation as if viewed from the normal to the image plane can help orient the viewer, both to identify image plane orientation and to indicate possible in plane rotation.
2) Ingraphic prescription of obliques from other images, a sample original image with an overlaid line or set of lines indicating the intersection of the original and oblique image planes can help orient the viewer.


In all cases the scanning surface is assigned to the top of the image. The orientation of single oblique slices can be specified by rotating a slice in one of the basic orientations toward one of the other two basic orthogonal planes about an axis defined by the intersection of the 2 planes.

See also Histogram.