Kitonyi J M
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi.
East Afr Med J. 1995 Feb;72(2):81-2.
The thymus in the paediatric chest will often give radiological appearances of very intriguing nature. It is known to react dramatically to stress factors such as infection or trauma. Gross hypertrophy following atrophy has been documented in many cases. In this paper the author scrutinizes one hundred anteroposterior chest radiographs of children under the age of five years suspected of having chest infection. Thymocardiac ratio is determined. It is concluded that in children under five years, the thymus generally decreases in size with age and that often the thymus will undergo atrophy as a primary response to infection.
小儿胸部的胸腺常常会呈现出非常有趣的放射学表现。已知它会对感染或创伤等应激因素产生显著反应。许多病例都记录了萎缩后出现的明显肥大。在本文中，作者仔细检查了100例疑似患有胸部感染的5岁以下儿童的胸部前后位X线片。测定了胸腺心脏比值。得出的结论是，5岁以下儿童的胸腺一般会随着年龄增长而缩小，而且胸腺常常会作为对感染的主要反应而发生萎缩。
