Abstract

As measurement of glomerular size in the assessment of several renal diseases becomes increasingly important, it has become necessary to devise rapid simple methods for the assessment of glomerular size and to have on hand reference ranges. A few reports on glomerular size have been published in Western literature, but their body builds are different from Koreans. In this study, 100 glomeruli(50 glomeruli each from the outer cortical and the juxtamedullary area) were measured in sections taken from 74 kidneys(ages 3 days~73 years) obtained from autopsy utilizing the semi-automatic image analyser. The percentage of glomerular sclerosis was measured based on its location. The sphere diameter, maximum diameter, area and sphere volume of non-sclerotic glomeruli were measured and evaluated with respect to age, sex and the location of the glomeruli. The results were as follows; 1) Mean glomerular dimensions including sphere and maximum diameter, area and sphere volume increased until 40 years of age, then reached a plateau. The percentage of sclerotic glomeruli then increased slowly with age but without statistical significance. 2) The glomerular dimensions and sclerosis showed no significant differences according to sex. 3) Juxtamedullary glomeruli were larger than the outer cortical ones which was statistically significant in age groups of 0~10, 11~20 and 41~50 years. The percentage of sclerotic glomeruli was generally greater in the outer cortex. 4) Differences in the values of glomerular dimensions between outer cortical and juxtamedullary area were similar in all age groups. 5) All parameters of measurement showed consistent and similar trends between the different groups. 6) The measurements of the largest 12 glomeruli out of randomly-selected 50 glomeruli gave similar results when compared with those of 50 glomeruli. It was evident from our results that glomerular size is influenced by age and glomerular location, but not by sex. The method of assessing glomerular size used in this study will not necessarily give the true, absolute value of size but it may be a simple, practical and useful method of comparing glomerular size in different groups of patients.

• Keywords: Glomerulus;Morphometry;Glomerular sclerosis