Renal parenchymal thickness in children with solitary functioning kidney

Background

Reduced renal parenchymal thickness (PT) is a parameter used by clinicians to assess the degree of hydronephrosis. In patients with a congenital hydronephrotic solitary functioning kidney (SFK), PT is difficult to determine as there is no comparison with the contralateral kidney. The aim of this study was to obtain ultrasound measurements of PT in children with normal SFK and to compare these data with PT measurements in children with two functioning kidneys.

Methods

This was a prospective multicenter study carried out between 2006 and 2011 in which 236 children aged 11 days to 18.96 years with healthy SFK were examined. The SFK etiologies were unilateral renal agenesis or a nonfunctioning contralateral kidney, mostly due to multicystic dysplasia. In addition to determining other parameters, we measured PT in the middle third of the kidney by ultrasound. Correlations between PT and age, height and weight were assessed.

Results

Correlation analysis showed a positive correlation with renal PT for all parameters. The correlation coefficients for age, height and weight were 0.863, 0.873 and 0.874, respectively. In most age categories, the renal parenchyma was significantly thicker in the SFK than in two functioning kidneys.

Conclusions

Based on our results, we suggest that PT in the SFK is correlated with height, weight and age of the patient. Consequently, measurements of PT may be used for monitoring the development of the healthy SFK and may contribute to a more accurate assessment of the severity of SFK anomalies.