Cross-Sectional Study of Ultrasonographic Assessment of Renal Volume and Its Correlation with Basal Metabolic Index

Abstract

Objective: Renal volume measurements are useful for differentiating between upper and lower urinary tract infections and for monitoring unilateral kidney disease by comparison with the other. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the relationship between renal volumes and BMI in the local population. Normal renal volume varies with BMI. Clinicians could use this to distinguish between volume variations caused by healthy processes and variations caused by diseased processes. This study aims to find the relationship between BMI and renal volumes in patients in a private tertiary care hospital who have no prior history of renal disease.

Methods: This six-month cross-sectional study, conducted at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, involved 310 participants in total. In this study, participants between the ages of 18 and 70 who had no prior history of renal disease were chosen. Using ultrasonography, the volumes of both kidneys were measured and correlated with BMI.

Results: The mean value of the right renal volume was 88.7 cm3 with 15.7 SD, while the left renal volume had a mean value of 95.3 cm3 with 16.5 SD. The calculated correlation coefficients between the right renal volume and BMI were 0.947 (P=0.001) and the left renal volume and BMI was 0.911 (P=0.001), suggesting a strong and statistically significant positive correlation between the renal volumes obtained by ultrasonography and BMI.

Conclusion: This study found a strong statistically significant positive correlation between BMI and renal volumes as determined by ultrasonography.