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Heritability, determinants and reference values of renal length: a family-based population study

  • Ultrasound
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

In this population-based study, reference values were generated for renal length, and the heritability and factors associated with kidney length were assessed.

Methods

Anthropometric parameters and renal ultrasound measurements were assessed in randomly selected nuclear families of European ancestry (Switzerland). The adjusted narrow sense heritability of kidney size parameters was estimated by maximum likelihood assuming multivariate normality after power transformation. Gender-specific reference centiles were generated for renal length according to body height in the subset of non-diabetic non-obese participants with normal renal function.

Results

We included 374 men and 419 women (mean ± SD, age 47 ± 18 and 48 ± 17 years, BMI 26.2 ± 4 and 24.5 ± 5 kg/m2, respectively) from 205 families. Renal length was 11.4 ± 0.8 cm in men and 10.7 ± 0.8 cm in women; there was no difference between right and left renal length. Body height, weight and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were positively associated with renal length, kidney function negatively, age quadratically, whereas gender and hypertension were not. The adjusted heritability estimates of renal length and volume were 47.3 ± 8.5 % and 45.5 ± 8.8 %, respectively (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

The significant heritability of renal length and volume highlights the familial aggregation of this trait, independently of age and body size. Population-based references for renal length provide a useful guide for clinicians.

Key Points

• Renal length and volume are heritable traits, independent of age and size.

• Based on a European population, gender-specific reference values/percentiles are provided for renal length.

• Renal length correlates positively with body length and weight.

• There was no difference between right and left renal lengths in this study.

• This negates general teaching that the left kidney is larger and longer.

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Acknowledgments

M.P., B.P., D.A., G.E. and I.G. and the study were supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (FN 33CM30-124087). Some of the results of this paper were obtained by using the program package S.A.G.E., which was supported by a U.S. Public Health Service Resource Grant (RR03655) from the National Center for Research Resources.

Conflicts of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nephrology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Menno Pruijm & Michel Burnier

  2. Department of Nephrology, University Hospital of Geneva (HUG), Geneva, Switzerland

    Belen Ponte & Pierre-Yves Martin

  3. Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Daniel Ackermann & Markus Mohaupt

  4. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Route de la Corniche 10, 1010, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Philippe Vuistiner, Fred Paccaud, Idris Guessous & Murielle Bochud

  5. Unit of Population Epidemiology, Division of Primary Care Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care and Emergency Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland

    Idris Guessous

  6. Cardiology, Department of Specialties of Internal Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1211, Geneva 14, Switzerland

    Georg Ehret

  7. Department of Nephrology, University Hospital Essen-Duisburg, Essen-Duisburg, Germany

    Ute Eisenberger

Authors
  1. Menno Pruijm
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  2. Belen Ponte
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  3. Daniel Ackermann
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  4. Philippe Vuistiner
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  9. Markus Mohaupt
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  10. Michel Burnier
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  11. Pierre-Yves Martin
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  12. Murielle Bochud
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Murielle Bochud.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary Table A

Associations between mean renal volume (in ml) and phenotypic characteristics of all participants (n = 793), assessed by multilevel multivariable linear regression, and expressed as regression coefficient β (95 % CI) (DOCX 18 kb)

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Pruijm, M., Ponte, B., Ackermann, D. et al. Heritability, determinants and reference values of renal length: a family-based population study. Eur Radiol 23, 2899–2905 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-013-2900-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-013-2900-4

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