Need for a nomogram of renal sizes in the Indian population

population is important in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of renal disease1. Renal size estimation can be performed measuring renal length, renal volume, cortical thickness or volume. The most accurate of these parameters is renal volume2,3, as the shape of kidney varies considerably. Renal length is, however, the most clinically useful parameter, due to its low inter-observer variation and better reproducibility2. Different imaging modalities such as conventional radiographs, intravenous urography (IVU), ultrasound (US), computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been used to estimate renal size. However, the most accurate of these modalities are the MRI and CT, because these can acquire three-dimensional data and, therefore, do not rely on geometric assumption to estimate organ volume unlike the ultrasonography that is used to measure kidney size in two dimensional nature3.