Normal Spleen Size in Relation To Weight of Adult Population in the Northwest Ethiopia Region: A Radiological Study.

Normal Spleen Size in Relation To Weight of Adult Population

Abstract

Background: Ultrasonography is the first imaging method to assess splenomegaly. So far, established normal limits of spleen dimensions remain scanty in the Ethiopian population, and the ultrasound data from the previous studies demonstrated that racial differences could affect the splenic volume; this necessitates the establishment of normative data of spleen dimensions for different areas. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study design was performed at the University of Gondar, hospital. The sonographic measurements of spleen length, width, thickness and volume were performed on 380 subjects. In addition, weight of the subjects were measured using standard anthropometric technique. Age and sex were also recorded. By Pearsons product moment correlation coefficients, the relation of spleen dimensions to weight was evaluated. Results: In males, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between subject weight and spleen length (r=0.244, P<0.001), and volume (r=0.164, P<0.05); however, there is no statistically significant correlation with spleen width (r=0.034, P>0.05) and spleen thickness (r=0.136, P>0.05). In females there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the weight of female subject and spleen length (r=0.274, P<0.001), width (r=0.239, P<0.01), thickness (r=0.244, P<0.01), and volume (r=0.335, P<0.0001). Conclusion: The positive correlation is found between the spleen parameters and weight of both the genders in Ethiopian population which has both clinical and forensic importance.