Determination of Normal Splenic Dimensions on Computed tomography Images in Sudanese Population

Abstract

Spleen is enlarged in a variety of clinical conditions including infectious, infiltrative, immunologic and malignant states. Evaluation of splenic size is important in every physical examination of the abdomen by a physician. Determination of its size by palpation can be extremely inaccurate because spleen is never palpable till it is enlarged 2 to 3 times its own size. The accurate diagnosis of splenic enlargement is a matter of considerable importance as it is a useful guide for arriving at a diagnosis of the disease. It is therefore of utmost importance to resort to a mechanism that will give us an accurate estimation of the size of spleen. The aim of this work was to examine variations in normal splenic size in relation to age, gender and body habitus in Sudanese population and compare it with the published data. A number of CT scans of 50 adult patients (male and female) aged between 18 – 70 years, having no splenic disorders, were collected from department of radiology at Almodaris Medical Center, Khartoum. Splenic volume was measured by the prolate ellipsoid formula [0.524 × splenic index (length × width × thickness)]. The results showed that the average splenic volume of all subjects was 211.9 ± 72.5 cm3 with a range of 99.03 to 398.40 cm3. The average splenic volume of males was 209.73 ± 62.74 and that of female was 214.06 ± 82.38 cm3. The study concluded that the obtained results provide normative data for evaluating patients with splenic enlargement.