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Assessment of the thymic morphometry using ultrasound in full-term newborns

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Abstract

Purpose

The size of thymus is variable and depends on age of the individual. Thymus undergoes its maximum development at the time of birth, when it also has the greatest relative weight. The aim of our study was to compare the two ways of expressing the size of the newborns′ thymus, the Thymus index and estimated volume of thymus.

Methods

The examined group consisted of 212 full-term newborns from Slovakia, Europe. We estimated the length, width and thickness of the left and right lobes. We used these data to calculate the approximate volume of the thymus. We also expressed size of the thymus as a multiple of the transverse diameter of the cranial part of the thymus and the sagittal area of the larger lobe of the thymus, the so-called Thymus index. Bilateral differences in thymus lobes′ sizes, as well as the thymus′ sizes between sexes and among the newborns of different types of birth were also analysed.

Results

Our results show that (1) the left thymus lobe is longer and thicker than the right lobe; (2) the Thymus index and the estimated volume of the thymus have a strong significant and positive correlation; (3) boys reach significantly higher values of the Thymus index than girls; and (4) when comparing the differences in the thymus size between the newborns born in two different ways (spontaneous and operatively), no significant difference was discovered.

Conclusion

Ultrasound examination is safe, effective and suitable for simple assessment of the thymus size, which has a great variability in children. In other hand, the use of the Thymus index in everyday clinical practice is limited due to different mean values in a number of studies.

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Acknowledgement

This study was supported by Grant VEGA of Slovak Ministry of Education No. 1/0902/11 (Thymus in human ontogenesis).

Conflict of interest

There is no financial or other relationship that might be perceived as leading to a conflict of interest (i.e. affecting author objectivity).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava, Sasinkova 4, 811 08, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ivan Varga

  2. Department of Radiology, ForLife General Hospital in Komarno, Medercska 39, 947 75, Komarno, Slovakia

    Alexandra Uhrinova

  3. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, ForLife General Hospital in Komarno, Medercska 39, 947 75, Komarno, Slovakia

    Frantisek Toth

  4. 1st Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mickiewiczova 13, 813 69, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Jana Mistinova

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  1. Ivan Varga
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Correspondence to Ivan Varga.

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Varga, I., Uhrinova, A., Toth, F. et al. Assessment of the thymic morphometry using ultrasound in full-term newborns. Surg Radiol Anat 33, 689–695 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-011-0806-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-011-0806-x

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