Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Ultrasonographic assessments of the kidney size is useful in diagnosis of
chronic renal pathologies among patients with non-communicable diseases including diabetes
mellitus (DM), which is one of the major public health problems in Ethiopia. Renal Doppler
ultrasound is standard imaging modality in the investigation of kidneys.
OBJECTIVES: The study is aimed to investigate the effect of diabetes on the kidneys using
ultrasonography, specifically on the anatomical size and vascularity of kidneys by Doppler
ultrasound in diabetic patients.
METHODS: Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted from June 26 to August 26,
2018 at Jimma University medical center, chronic follow up clinic Jimma Ethiopia. Renal size
was assessed by ultrasound among diabetic adult patients who fulfill inclusion criteria. The
data were collected by using structured questionnaires and entered to Epi-Data version 3.1 and
were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis
were used for analysis and statistically significance was declared at p< 0.05.
RESULTS: The mean lengths in all age groups of right and left kidney were 10.263±0.764cm
and 10.421±0.714 respectively. The mean volume of right and left kidney in all age groups were
98.115±23.118 cm and 101.423±24.457 cm respectively. In bivariate analysis right kidney
length has negative & positive correlation with Age (r=-0.163, p-value=0.031), body
height(r=0.137,P-value=0.070), body weight (r=0.309, p-value=0.001), BMI(r=0.234 , pvalue=0.002), duration of diabetes (r=-0.111, p-value=0.142), Type of DM (r=-0.095, pvalue=0.211), DBP (r=0.115, p-value=0.128.In bivariate analysis of left kidney has negative &
positive correlation between left kidney length, Age(r=-0.121,p-value=0.111) sex(r=-0.099, p -
value=0.192), height(r= 0.198 ,p- value= 0.009), weight ( r= 0.271, p- value= 0.001), BMI( r=
0.156, p- value= 0.036), Duration of DM (r=-0.121, p- value= 0.112), Type of DM (r=-0.124,
p- value= 0.103), DBP( r=0.147, p- value= 0.05). Multivariable linear regression analysis, Age
(p-value=0.001, p-value=0.013), body height (p-value=0.001, p-value= 0.000), BMI (pvalue=0.000, p- value=0.001) showed significant correlations with right and left kidney length
respectively. Regarding volume of the kidney only body height (p-value=0.003, p-value=0.017)
and BMI (p-value=0.001, p-value=0.000) showed significant correlation with right and left
kidney respectively.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study has provided measurements of renal
length, width, thickness & predictors of kidney size among diabetic patients at chronic follow up
clinic in Jimma University medical center. Renal length has a direct relationship with Age,
Body height and BMI. To researcher further study has to be conducted with larger sample size.
For clinical practitioners they can use this data as an input for clinical decisions particularly
during diabetic patient management & kidney related problems in general.
