The thymus, a paired lymphoid gland located in the neck region or upper abdominal cavity in birds and mammals, has been the subject of considerable attention in recent years. This gland plays a major role in the immunological system, being indispensable for the development of lymphoid cells in the lymph nodes, spleen, and other lymphoid organs; the thymus, itself, does not form antibodies (Haur...

AIMS Intrathyroidal ectopic thymus (IET) is being increasingly reported in the radiology literature. Most of the reports are of individual cases or small series and prevalence and natural course of the pathology is not well known. The purpose of this study is to establish the prevalence of IET in children and report long term follow-up results. MATERIAL AND METHODS In 180 children who were ex...

Neonatally thymectomized female mice were studied and compared to appropriate controls. Neonatal thymectomy appears to decrease fertility significantly in the female C3H/HeJ mouse. However, if a thymectomized female mouse becomes pregnant, pregnancy offers significant protection against wasting disease and death. The maternal thymus appears to play no significant role in the development of the ...

The pathophysiological role of the thymus in myasthenia gravis, and the mechanism of therapeutic effect of thymectomy, are incompletely understood. Nevertheless, thymectomy is a valuable treatment modality in selected patients with generalised myasthenia gravis. There are several types of thymectomy operation, but no one operative approach is clearly superior to the others. Total removal of the...

The thymus gland is a lymphatic organ involved in lymphoid cell development and maturation. However, its embryologic origins come from the endoderm as epithelial outgrowths of the lower portion of the third pharyngeal pouches. Cells of these epithelial outgrowths grow into the surrounding mesenchyma and subsequently constitute the medullary areas of the lobules of the thymus. In some areas, epi...

The aim of this study is to report a case of agenesis of the isthmus of the thyroid gland, and ectopic locations of the inferior parathyroid glands and thymus observed in an 80-year old female cadaver during routine dissection of the head and neck. The two lobes of the thyroid gland were small and connected by pretracheal fascia at the midline, which upon histological study were seen to contain...

Objective. Thymus alterations have been related to several autoimmune disorders. In particular, previous studies identified a significant frequency of gland abnormalities by chest high-resolution CT (HRCT) in SSc patients. In this study we aimed to investigate the prevalence of radiological thymic alterations and their correlation with clinical and serological features in a large SSc series. Me...

Radioiodine uptake is not commonly seen by the thymus gland. On the contrary, the gland is slowly replaced by fat after puberty. Herein, we present 2 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, follicular variant, and cervical lymph node involvement. After total/near-total thyroidectomy, the patients received I for ablation therapy. On posttreatment radioiodine scintigraphy, mediastinal I uptake...

Despite improved screening modalities, 15-25% of newly diagnosed colorectal cancers are metastatic at the time of diagnosis. The vast majority of these cases present as hepatic metastasis; however, 22% present with concomitant extrahepatic disease. The thymus gland is an uncommon site of metastasis for any primary malignancy, particularly, colorectal cancer given its vascular and lymphatic drai...

The mediastinal, lympho-epithelial organ was termed thymus to denote a ductless, gland-like body which has the appearance of a "warty excrescence" (Greek, thymos). Early investigators had ascribed a functional role to this gland including the production of humoral factors which modulated cell growth, maturation and exerted influence on the process of mineralization. Investigators of the past de...