WEIGHT VARIABILITY OF KIDNEYS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF RENAL DISEASE

Abstract

It has been shown that in intravenous pyelographies (IVP's) a 10% difference in the surface area between right and left kindey is indicative of disease, the smaller kindey being affected, and that a comparable difference may exist in the weight of the kindeys at post mortem. Το investigate the validity of this assertion we undertook a review of 452 autopsy reports; of these 105 had some form of renal disease and were considered for further study. It was demonstrated that this ''10% rule" tended to be applicable to some renal conditions (chronic pyelonephritis, calculus disease, hydronephrosis and tumours), but not in others (glomerulonephritis, papillary necrosis, amyloidosis). These results suggest that the '10% rule" is of some value in conditions which tend to affect the kindeys unilaterally, while in others the individual weight of the kindeys has to be taken in to account.