Department of Radiology, St. Luke's International Hospital, 9-1 Akashi-Cho, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan.
Jpn J Radiol. 2024 Mar;42(3):217-234. doi: 10.1007/s11604-023-01497-w. Epub 2023 Oct 6.
The thymus, a primary lymphoid organ of the immune system, undergoes several changes due to a variety of reasons, ranging from aging to pathological conditions. These changes can make distinguishing between benign and neoplastic changes in the thymus challenging, thereby complicating the histopathological diagnoses of thymic tumors. Moreover, most patients with thymic tumors are asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. Therefore, imaging plays an extremely important role in the evaluation of thymic lesions. In this review, we introduced the imaging characteristics of the thymus, ranging from benign findings, such as normal maturation and benign lesions, to neoplasms.
胸腺是免疫系统的主要淋巴器官，由于多种原因，包括衰老和病理状况等，会发生多种变化。这些变化使得区分胸腺中的良性和肿瘤性改变具有挑战性，从而使胸腺瘤的组织病理学诊断变得复杂。此外，大多数胸腺瘤患者在诊断时无症状。因此，影像学在评估胸腺病变中起着极其重要的作用。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了胸腺的影像学特征，包括良性表现，如正常成熟和良性病变，以及肿瘤。
