The examination of thymic size and involvement in patients with lymphoid malignancies

INTRODUCTION: Thymus involvement is a rare situation in patients with lymphoma. Thymus can be involved in lenfoid malignancies like NHL and HL. Thymic lymphomas most frequently detected at the age of 30?s, shows no significant differences in terms of gender. In the study, Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients with chronic lymphocytic Thoracic Computed Tomography (TCT) images were reviewed in terns of thymus diameter, volume, uptake, shape, position in comparison with the control group. METHOD: The records of the patients who have applied to the Celal Bayar University Hospital Hematology Outpatient Clinic have been screened. Patients with a diagnosis of lymphoma images (TCT) were included in the patient group (PG). Those patient who were admitted to the emergency department due to trauma and have TCT images were examined and those who have not systemic illness were included as Control Group (CG). TCT images of the patients and the cases in the radiology department were opened and thymus, diameter, volume, uptake, shape, position, appearance, fatty infiltration in terms of lymphadenopathy were re-evaluated by two radiologists. FINDINGS: 162 people including 81 patients and 81 cases were included in the study. It has been detected that 42 people (52 %) were NHL, 13 of them (16%) were HL, 26 of them (32 %) were KLL. Of these patients, 28 were female while 53 of them were male. The average age of the patient group (PG) was 56 and the avarage age of the control group (CG) was 49. Among these patients, involvement of the thymus was detected in 2 NHL (6.9 %) patient and 1 HL (10 %) patient while among KLL patients, involvement of the thymus aws not detected. When compared in regard to the thymus diameter, in PG anteroposterior and craniocaudal diameter was significantly higher than the average. And it was detected that there isn?t any difference in terms of transverse diameter between the two groups ( p:<0,001 ,p:<0,001, p:<0.716;respectively). When compared interms of the volume of the thymus, it was found that the volume of the thymus in PG is significantly increased ( p:0.015). when compared in terms of therapy response volume, it was found that the mean volume of the thymus of 5 patients was significantly higher (p:0.048). Full-fat infiltration of the thymus was significantly higher in older patients (p:0.003). RESULT: Although the lymphoma involvement of the thymus is rare in patients with lymphoma, it can stil be seen. So in patients with lymphoma, thymus should be carefully examined. While examining the CTC images of the patients? thymus, more than one measurement of diameter should be performed, notably it is very important to perform volume measurement. The evaluation of the thymus shape, fat infiltraion and the presence of the lymphadenopathy are important parameters.