Relating to both the ribs and the diaphragm, especially the angle where they meet at the bottom of the rib cage.
From Latin 'costa' (rib) combined with 'phrenic' from Greek 'phrenes' (diaphragm, originally 'mind' because ancient Greeks thought the diaphragm was the seat of emotion). The costophrenic angle is a crucial landmark in chest imaging.
The costophrenic angles are where radiologists look first on chest X-rays because fluid from pneumonia, heart failure, or other diseases tends to pool there first—it's the lowest point of the pleural space, so gravity does the dirty work of evidence collection.
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