A student cuts a kidney from top to bottom and looks at the cut surface…
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A student cuts a kidney from top to bottom and looks at the cut surface. A thin line is drawn from the capsule inward, passing through a renal column and ending at the renal pelvis.
- Name the zone that the line passes through first, and then the next structure.
- Is the renal column a part of the medulla? Explain.
- Name the tube that leaves the kidney from the renal pelvis.
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
The system has two kidneys, two ureters, a bladder and a urethra. A kidney lies between the last thoracic and the third lumbar vertebra. It has a capsule, an outer cortex and an inner medulla of cone shaped pyramids. The cortex runs between the pyramids as the renal columns. The notch is the hilum, and inside it lies the renal pelvis with its calyces. The kidneys receive to mL of blood a minute, roughly a fifth of the cardiac output.
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. (a) The line passes through the cortex, and the column is the next structure. The column is a strip of cortex that dips between two pyramids, so the line stays in cortical tissue until it reaches the calyx and the pelvis.
Step 2. (b) No. The renal column is a part of the cortex that extends between the medullary pyramids.
Step 3. (c) The ureter.
Answer: (a) cortex, then the renal column; (b) no, it is cortex; (c) ureter.
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