Distribution and concentration of cadmium in human kidney.

The left kidneys from twenty males, aged 30 to 59, were examined. On an average, the cortex, medulla, and the remainder (renal pelvis and adjacent fatty tissue) constituted 65, 27, and 8 percent of the whole kidney weight, respectively. The mean cadmium concentrations were 18.4, 6.9, and 3.2 micrograms Cd/g wet wt, respectively. The mean whole kidney cadmium concentration was 14.4 micrograms Cd/g wet wt. The kidney cortex concentration of cadmium can be approximated by multiplying the whole kidney concentration by a factor of 1.25, which is somewhat lower than the factor of 1.5 previously used. It may be necessary to recalculate previously reported estimates of critical concentrations for cadmium in kidney cortex based on neutron activation analyses in vivo of whole kidney.