Sonographic Measurements of the Spleen in Relation to Height: A Prospective and Observational Study in Northwest Ethiopian Adults.

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Background: Spleen size vary widely according to age, sex and region. Many diseases can affect their size, ranging from infective processes to malignant disorders. Present study is done to establish the normal range of spleen size in adults of Northwest Ethiopia to assess splenomegaly in all disease conditions affecting the spleen and to correlate the dimensions of spleen with the height. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study design was performed at the University of Gondar, hospital. The sonographic measurements of spleen length, width, thickness and volume were performed on 380 subjects. In addition, height of the subjects were measured using standard anthropometric technique. Age and sex were also recorded. By Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients, the relation of spleen dimensions to height was evaluated. Results: Pearson`s correlation finding indicated a moderate positive significant correlation (P<0.0001) between the splenic length, width, volume and body height of all the subjects (r: >0.3). No statistically significant correlation with splenic dimensions in males (r=0.107, 0.039, 0.060, and 0.091 for spleen length, width, thickness, and volume, respectively) was found. Height of female study subjects had a statistically significant positive correlation with spleen length (r=0.203, P<0.01), width (r=0.175, P<0.05), thickness (r=0.292, P<0.001), and volume (r=0.261, P<0.001). Conclusion: The dimensions of the spleen (Length, width, thickness and volume) are found to have statistically significant positive correlation coefficient with the height of the female population.