Thymic Tumours with Red Cell Aplasia.

The presence of a thymic tumour in a patient with red cell aplasia was first described by Humphreys and Southworth in 1945. After excision of this tumour the anaemia' was cured in this-patient. A second case was then recorded by Barquet Chediak, Fuste, and Vaizquez Rosales (1953) and again excision was followed by a cure of the anaemia. Fourteen further cases of excision of thymic tumours in patients with pure red cell aplasia have now been described in the literature. This paper reports such a case and reviews the collective results of thymectomy in this condition. These results do not bear out the high promise shown by the first two cases in which relief of the anaemia was recorded. CASE REPORT Mrs. J. H. was 43 years old. She had first come under medical care in 1957. At that time she had a lower abdominal mass which was thought to be fibroids; a chest radiograph showed a mediastinal tumour (Fig. 1). Her haemoglobin was 13 3 g. c.mm. She was of difficult personality and discharged herself from the hospital where she was under care in 1957. She remained well until December 1962 when she complained of amenorrhoea and breathlessness of five months' duration. On examination her haemoglobin was found to be 2-2 g./100 ml. After transfusion, a hysterectomy for fibroids was performed. It was then apparent that