Renal weights in the Southern African black population

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Abstract
Renal weights of 430 adult black subjects coming to medicolegal autopsy at the Diepkloof State Mortuary, a large urban area southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, were analyzed. The subjects were from 10 southern African black ethnic groups–Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa, Shangaan, Swazi, Venda, Ndebele, Kalanga, and Malawi. The aims of the study were: 1) to ascertain the anatomical “norm” as it pertains to renal weights in this diverse population group; 2) to formulate standard reference tables that might be of use to the practicing pathologist in the southern African arena; 3) to provide a range of values that take into account the variables of age, sex, race, body weight, and body height; and 4) to provide a standard of comparison with anthropological and anatomical studies conducted on North American black, North American Caucasian, Indian subcontinent, Burmese, and Jamaican population groups. In each of the 430 subjects, age, sex, ethnic group, supine body length, body weight, individual left and right renal weights, and causes of death were noted. The latter were divided into 6 categories: 1) penetrating incised wounds; 2) multiple injuries; 3) gunshot wounds; 4) craniocerebral injuries; 5) various miscellaneous nonnatural causes of death; and 6) natural causes of death. The above variables were analyzed by computer and compared with respect to renal weights. No statistically significant differences were observed between the sexes or the age groups. Further statistical analysis indicated that the 10 southern African black ethnic groups observed at the Diepkloof Mortuary can be subdivided on the basis of total renal weight into 3 logical combinations of ethnic groups: 1) Venda, Tswana, and Swazi; 2) Zulu, and 3) Xhosa, Sotho, Shangaan, and Ndebele. An additional finding was that the cause of death appears to have a major influence on the weight of the kidneys. A range of normal values together with their means and standard deviations could thus be obtained for 6 subcategories making up 3 subdivisions of ethnic groups combined with 2 subdivisions of causes of death.