distale

Distale is an Italian adjective meaning distal, used in anatomy to describe structures situated farther from the trunk or from a reference point such as the center of the body or the point of attachment of a limb. It serves as the counterpart to proximale, which denotes elements closer to that reference point. In Italian medical and anatomical texts, distale agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies (distale for masculine and feminine singular, distali for masculine and feminine plural).

In practice, distale is applied to indicate the far end of a limb or of an organ. Examples include la parte distale dell’ulna (the distal part of the ulna), frattura distale dell’ulna (distal ulna fracture), la parte distale del radio (the distal part of the radius), or metatarso distale (distal metatarsal). In imaging and surgical planning, the term helps specify location relative to joints and the body's midline, such as in radiology reports or operative notes.

The English counterpart is distal, and English-language texts rarely use distale except when referring to Italian terminology. In Latin anatomical usage, the related form distalis is common, and distale appears in modern Romance-language contexts as the Italian form. Overall, distale conveys the same directional information as distal, grounding descriptions of anatomy in the concept of being farther from the trunk or a defined reference point.