RENAL SONOGRAPHIC MEASUREMENTS IN THE DOG PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING UNILATERAL NEPHRECTOMY

The purpose of this study was to establish sonographic baseline values for normal kidneys in-situ and to document sonographic changes following unilateral nephrectomy. Normal canine renal measurements were determined sonographically prior to and following unilateral nephrectomy. These included: cortical thickness (cranial, caudal, dorsal, ventral, lateral and medial), medullary measurements (cranial and caudal) and measurements of the renal silhouette (length, height and width). The latter group of measurements was obtained to determine renal volume. Normal parameters were obtained from sixteen healthy dogs prior to nephrectomy; the unilateral nephrectomy group was comprised of eight of these animals, the remaining eight dogs were part of an allo-transplant study.1 The mean sonographic value for the length of the kidney was 60.3 mm +/- 6.4 (n = 26) while the widths and heights were 34.7 +/- 3.8 (n = 27) and 27.8 mm +/- 3.3 (n = 26) respectively. Renal cortical measurements were found to be smallest dorsally and ventrally on sagittal and transverse sonograms. The largest volumes were the cranial pole on sagittal scans and the lateral pole on the transverse scans. Pearson correlation coefficient for volume resulted in r values of 0.88, 0.78 and 0.72 for length, height and width (n = 25, dif = 24) respectively.