Time changes of renal dimensions and variations of glomerular filtration rate in chronic kidney disease patients

The aim of this longitudinal prospective study was to search if even in the absence of total or partial nephrectomy the kidney size can increase as the kidney function improves.

We randomly enrolled 80 adult patients with various degrees of chronic renal failure but non-dialysis dependent neither totally or partially nephrectomized nor affected by any of the pathological conditions that can increase kidney size. The patients underwent a first examination comprehensive of a blood sample and renal ultrasonography and then were submitted to a therapeutic intervention aimed at removing all nephrotoxic agents to finally be subjected to a last similar medical examination.

The statistical analysis displayed a strong positive correlation between the percentage variation of the renal diameters' average and the time changes of the GFR (r 0.731; p < 0.01) as well as the percentage variation of the GFR and the time changes variations of the right (r 0.487; p < 0.01) and left cortical kidney thickness (r 0.519; p < 0.01) and finally a strong negative correlation between the removal of nephrotoxic agents and the percentage variation of the renal diameters' average (r - 0.293; p < 0.01) and the time changes of the GFR (r - 0.429; p < 0.01).

In patients with chronic kidney disease, even in the absence of total or partial nephrectomy, under the stimulus of the removal of any nephrotoxic agents, there may be a limited increase in renal size according to a model that sees them vary according to the changes in GFR.