Reference Ranges of Age-Based Liver, Spleen, Pancreas, and Kidney Size in Conjunction with Waist Circumference in Children

Abstract

Objective: In the initial phases of parenchymal diseases, the only finding would be an increase in organ size. We aimed to provide percentile charts of solid intraabdominal organ sizes by age for Turkish children on contrast-enhanced computed tomography images and reveal relative size ratios.

Materials and Methods: A total of 800 abdominal computed tomography examinations of otherwise healthy children (468 males, 332 females) were enrolled. The transverse diameter and lengths of both liver lobes, the thickness of the pancreas, width and length of the spleen, and anteroposterior diameters and lengths of both kidneys were measured. Differences in mean diameters among ages were compared with the analysis of variance test. Pearson’s correlation was assessed to depict the association of size with age and waist circumference.

Results: Percentile charts for all measured size parameters that presented statistically significant positive correlations with age and waist circumference were provided. There were constant ratios of the right liver lobe to the left liver lobe (1.9 ± 0.37), right liver lobe to the right kidney (1.56 ± 0.26), left to the right kidney (1.03 ± 0.09), and spleen to the left kidney (1 ± 0.2) lengths in every age groups. Age (years)-dependant regression equation for waist circumference (mm) was depicted as “22 × age + 408.”

Conclusion: Age-based percentile charts of solid intraabdominal organ diameters along with relative organ size ratios were provided.