Radiological behaviour of the thymus in chest infection in the underfives

Abstract

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 eases, In this paper the author scrutinizes one hundred anteroposterior chest radiographs of children under the age or five years suspected or having chest infection. Thymocardiac: ratio is determined. It is concluded that in children under five years, the tbymus generally decreases in size with age and that often the thymus will undergo atrophy as a primary response to infection.