Study of the fetal kidney length growth during the second and third trimesters of gestation.

The fetal kidney length growth was studied in 240 kidneys taken from 120 staged human fetuses (74 males and 46 females) ranging in age from 10 to 36 weeks postconception. Each kidney was quantitatively evaluated considering its greatest longitudinal length. The data were correlated to the gestational age by using the allometric method (Y = bXk). Equations and growth curves of right and left kidneys, males, females and the whole sample during the second and the third trimesters are presented. This study has practical utility in the quantitative determination of the renal anomalies and in the determination of the gestational age.