The thymic size in children: a preliminary sonographic study

It is usually believed that the size of the thymus increases up to the age of one year and perhaps it increases even until puberty. We performed a sonographic assessment of the thymic volume in nine healthy term infant 3–7 times within the first one-and-a half years of life. We found that the thymic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of ultrasound Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 117 - 119
Main Authors Hasselbalch, Helle, Bachmann Nielsen, Michael, Fog Pedersen, Jan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.10.1997
Subjects
Healthy infants
Mediastinum
Thymus size
Ultrasonography
Thymus size
Healthy infants
Mediastinum
Ultrasonography
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Summary:It is usually believed that the size of the thymus increases up to the age of one year and perhaps it increases even until puberty. We performed a sonographic assessment of the thymic volume in nine healthy term infant 3–7 times within the first one-and-a half years of life. We found that the thymic size increased only during the first 6 months of life and then it decreased. Two children were atypical in that the size of the thymus increased again after 6 months of age. We suspect that the thymic size may be affected by infections and feeding modes and ongoing larger sonographic studies will hopefully reveal this.
ISSN:0929-8266
DOI:10.1016/S0929-8266(97)10004-0