Size and weight study of human kidney growth velocity during the last three months of pregnancy.

Increase in kidney size and weight was studied in 392 kidneys from 196 dead pre- and full-term infants. The kidneys, whose three main dimensions were measured with Vernier calipers, were rigorously chosen: premature infants from pathological pregnancies or born with developmental defects and stillbirths were excluded from this study. All the kidneys used were normal. The three-dimensional reference curves for kidney growth as a function of size, weight and age of the fetus had not been established before, and should allow a better quantification of anomalies of renal development.