A Prospective Study To Compare The Adult Weights Of Internal Organs From The Copperbelt Province Of Zambia With The Reference Internal Organ Weights Listed In The International Commission On Radiological Protection Publication 89 (icrp 89)

The objective of the study was to compare the weight of internal organs of the adult Zambian with the valuesindicated in ICRP 89. The study involved 115 (83 males and 32 female) forensic autopsies from Ndola TeachingHospital done over a period of 12 months. In this study, subjects who died due to disease process were notincluded, only accidental and homicide cases were included in the study. The average weight of the internalorgans was compared to ICRP 89 values. One sample t-test was used to determine the significance of thedifferences in weights. P-values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. It was observedthat the weight of the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and brain were smaller compared to ICRP 89 values, except thesize of the spleen which was statistically the same in the male subjects, while the heart and the spleen wasstatistically the same in the female subjects. The differences in the weights of internal organs was attributed tothe differences in body size between ICRP and NTH subjects.