Kidney Parameters And Body Habitus Among South Eastern Nigerians

Abstract

Background; Imaging study of the kidney parameters helps in monitoring kidney sizes to enable early detection of deviations from normal, which may be early warning signs of a serious underlying disease state.
Materials and Methods: The kidney size 120 subjects was studied by ultrasonography. Right and left kidneys were examined. The age of the subjects ranged from 15-70 yrs in both sexes. Sixty seven men (56%) and 53(44%) women participated in study. The ultraonographic assessment was performed with a multipurpose ultrasonographic scanner made by Philips Sterling with 3.5MHz transducer used for deep structures. The length, breadth and thickness of the kidney were measured. The analysis was done by computer with SPSS (version 100) package.
Results and Discussion: The study established a mean kidney length of 104.771mm, breadth 59.59mm and thickness 40.13.59. McMinn stated Caucasian figures higher than the values from our study. These racial differences could be attributable to genetic and environmental factors. Left kidney length, breadth and thickness were found to be longer in males than in female, length 107.7mm (males) and 105.8 (females).


Keywords: Kidney, Body Habitus, Ultrasound.

Tropical Journal of Medical Research Vol. 11 (1) 2007: pp. 7-10