Correlation of renal sizes, age and packed cell volume in patients with sickle cell anaemia

Ultrasonographic measurements of both kidneys were carried out in 97 patients with sickle cell anaemia and 48 age and sex- matched control subjects in order to compare the length of this organ in them and fmd out if there are any differences. Kidney length was analyzed according to age groups to detemine the influence of age, if any. The effect of age and kidney length on the haematocrit was also examined. Patients and control subjects were selected on the basis of heamoglobin electrophoresis pattern and clinical history. Kidney length was determined using ultrasound technique while ha.emIatocrit was determined by the microhaematocrit method. There was no significant difference between the kidney lengths of sickle cell anaemia patients and the control subjects. There were no significant differences between the right and left kidney lengths, and between female and made subjects. While the kidneys of the con- trol subjects increased progressively with age, that of the patients increased up to the age of 30 years and thereafter declined. Haematocrit increased with age in the control subjects (r =0.06). From the above fmdings, we suggests that due to the significant erythropoietic stress which begins early in patients with sickle cell anaemia, the' kidney reaches its optimum performance rapidly and starts to decline in the fourth decade of life.