Renal Ultrasonography Screening: A Comparison Between Male and Female Cohorts of University Students

Objective: This study aimed to assess renal ultrasonography findings in a cohort of university students. Materials and methods: Participants underwent renal ultrasonography screening in a prospective cross-sectional study using the Esaote MyLab40 system (Genoa, Italy). A 3.5-MHz transducer was used to evaluate the right (Rt) and left (Lt) kidneys for parenchymal texture and length measurements. Participants were selected using simple random sampling. Inclusion criteria consisted of asymptomatic university students. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and Pearson correlation analyses were performed. Results: A total of 100 participants with a mean age of 20.91 ± 1.52 years were enrolled. The mean kidney length was 9.68 ± 0.73 cm on the Rt side and 10.02 ± 1.19 cm on the Lt side. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 23.45 ± 5.24 kg/m². Incidental renal findings were observed in 5% of participants and were more frequent in males, including simple cysts (2%), renal agenesis (1%), and a double collecting system (2%). For males and females, respectively, the mean Rt kidney length was 9.9630 ± 0.56225 cm and 9.3904 ± 0.78268 cm, while the mean Lt kidney length was 9.9424 ± 1.58818 cm and 10.1046 ± 0.58872 cm. Females demonstrated slightly longer kidney lengths overall (t = 4.201, P < 0.001), although no significant difference was observed for the Rt kidney alone. A significant correlation was noted between Rt kidney length and BMI (r = 0.293, p = 0.003). Conclusion: Incidental renal sonographic findings were uncommon and occurred more frequently in males. Females demonstrated slightly longer kidney lengths. Kidney length showed a significant correlation with BMI.