Within normal limits: Meaning in a Radiology Report

Within normal limits

Also written as: WNL, within the normal range, normal in size, normal for age

Within normal limits means a measurement or appearance falls inside the range expected for healthy people, often matched to age and sex.

Seen on: Any scan

How it reads in a report

The right kidney measures 10.8 cm and the left 11.2 cm, both within normal limits.

What it means

Many things on a scan have a usual range. Examples are the size of an organ, the width of a blood vessel and the thickness of a wall. Within normal limits says your result falls inside that range. The range comes from studies of healthy people, and for some measurements it shifts with age, sex or body size. The phrase can also describe how something looks.

When it matters

It is a normal result and needs no action by itself. A value close to the edge of the range still counts as normal. Measurements also vary a little between machines and readers, so a small difference from an older report is expected. If other lines in the report describe findings, those are what your doctor will focus on.

Questions to ask your doctor

Are any of my measurements close to the edge of the normal range?
Was the normal range adjusted for my age, sex or body size?
Does a normal result here rule out what my doctor was looking for?

General information, not medical advice. What a finding means for you depends on your symptoms, your history and the images themselves, so talk your results through with a doctor.