title: Relationship between sonographic renal length and renal parenchymal thickness in normal adult southeast Nigerians.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the relationship between sonographic renal parenchymal thickness (RPT) and renal length (RL) in normal adult Nigerian.
  
  
  METHODS
  The RL and RPT of 309 normal subjects within the age range of 18-80 years were measured sonographically and prospectively. Correlation was performed between RL values and RPT usingPearson Linear 'r' test
  
  
  RESULTS
  The range of RL value were 8.5-12.9 cm and the corresponding mean were 10.33 +/- 0.7 cm and 10.45 +/- 0.63 cm for the right and left kidneys respectively. The range of values for the RPT was 1.40-2.4 and the corresponding mean values were 1.91 +/- 0.20 cm and 1.95 +/- 0.19 cm for the right and left kidneys respectively. There was a strong positive correlation between RPT and RL (r = 0.72 and 0.77 for the right and left kidney respectively. However for RL values above 11.0 cm the RPT values fluctuated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From this study, for RL above 11.0 cm there was no relationship with RPT. The study suggests that for our population groups, kidneys with RL lower than 8.5 cm and RPT of 1.40 cm or less should not be biopsied in contrast to webb's criteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: I J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Okoye
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Agwu
authors.forename: C U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Eze
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D014463:Ultrasonography