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Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study

We aimed to investigate if Computed tomography (CT) attenuation values can help improve the identification of age-related changes in the thymus. We assessed CT images of 405 patients aged 0 to 80 years. We measured the area of the anterior mediastinum at the level of the carina and its average CT at...

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Autores principales: Suzuki, Kosuke, Kitami, Akihiko, Okada, Momoka, Takamiya, Shinnosuke, Ohashi, Shinichi, Tanaka, Yoko, Uematsu, Syugo, Kadokura, Mitsutaka, Suzuki, Takashi, Hashizume, Norihiro, Fujisawa, Hidefumi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9371532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35960086
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029950
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author Suzuki, Kosuke
Kitami, Akihiko
Okada, Momoka
Takamiya, Shinnosuke
Ohashi, Shinichi
Tanaka, Yoko
Uematsu, Syugo
Kadokura, Mitsutaka
Suzuki, Takashi
Hashizume, Norihiro
Fujisawa, Hidefumi
author_facet Suzuki, Kosuke
Kitami, Akihiko
Okada, Momoka
Takamiya, Shinnosuke
Ohashi, Shinichi
Tanaka, Yoko
Uematsu, Syugo
Kadokura, Mitsutaka
Suzuki, Takashi
Hashizume, Norihiro
Fujisawa, Hidefumi
author_sort Suzuki, Kosuke
collection PubMed
description We aimed to investigate if Computed tomography (CT) attenuation values can help improve the identification of age-related changes in the thymus. We assessed CT images of 405 patients aged 0 to 80 years. We measured the area of the anterior mediastinum at the level of the carina and its average CT attenuation value. We evaluated the thymic area, the ratio of the thymus area to the total thoracic area, and the CT attenuation value. Additionally, we evaluated changes in the thymus area in the 0 to 13-year age group. The area of the thymus decreased from birth to the middle 20s. After the middle 20s, the area tended to increase and plateau till after 50 years of age. The ratio of the thymic area to the thoracic area decreased from age 0 to 20 years, but remained stable after 20 years of age. The CT attenuation values were stable from birth to puberty, decreased after puberty, and were stable again in the late 50s and beyond. The thymus of children showed mass formation, but the shape changed with age. No significant differences in the CT attenuation value were found across underlying conditions for the 0 to 13-year age group. The decrease in the CT attenuation values, observed with advancing age, reflects adipose degeneration of the thymus, indicating that by the late 50s, thymic tissue is replaced completely by adipose tissue. Our data suggest that adipose degeneration of the thymus begins after puberty and advances with age.
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spelling pubmed-93715322022-08-16 Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study Suzuki, Kosuke Kitami, Akihiko Okada, Momoka Takamiya, Shinnosuke Ohashi, Shinichi Tanaka, Yoko Uematsu, Syugo Kadokura, Mitsutaka Suzuki, Takashi Hashizume, Norihiro Fujisawa, Hidefumi Medicine (Baltimore) Research Article We aimed to investigate if Computed tomography (CT) attenuation values can help improve the identification of age-related changes in the thymus. We assessed CT images of 405 patients aged 0 to 80 years. We measured the area of the anterior mediastinum at the level of the carina and its average CT attenuation value. We evaluated the thymic area, the ratio of the thymus area to the total thoracic area, and the CT attenuation value. Additionally, we evaluated changes in the thymus area in the 0 to 13-year age group. The area of the thymus decreased from birth to the middle 20s. After the middle 20s, the area tended to increase and plateau till after 50 years of age. The ratio of the thymic area to the thoracic area decreased from age 0 to 20 years, but remained stable after 20 years of age. The CT attenuation values were stable from birth to puberty, decreased after puberty, and were stable again in the late 50s and beyond. The thymus of children showed mass formation, but the shape changed with age. No significant differences in the CT attenuation value were found across underlying conditions for the 0 to 13-year age group. The decrease in the CT attenuation values, observed with advancing age, reflects adipose degeneration of the thymus, indicating that by the late 50s, thymic tissue is replaced completely by adipose tissue. Our data suggest that adipose degeneration of the thymus begins after puberty and advances with age. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9371532/ /pubmed/35960086 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029950 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Suzuki, Kosuke
Kitami, Akihiko
Okada, Momoka
Takamiya, Shinnosuke
Ohashi, Shinichi
Tanaka, Yoko
Uematsu, Syugo
Kadokura, Mitsutaka
Suzuki, Takashi
Hashizume, Norihiro
Fujisawa, Hidefumi
Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title_full Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title_fullStr Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title_short Evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: A retrospective observational study
title_sort evaluation of age-related thymic changes using computed tomography images: a retrospective observational study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9371532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35960086
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029950
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