Cargando…
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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |
_version_ | 1784767169914994688 |
---|---|
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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9371532 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT suzukikosuke evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT kitamiakihiko evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT okadamomoka evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT takamiyashinnosuke evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT ohashishinichi evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT tanakayoko evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT uematsusyugo evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT kadokuramitsutaka evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT suzukitakashi evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT hashizumenorihiro evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy AT fujisawahidefumi evaluationofagerelatedthymicchangesusingcomputedtomographyimagesaretrospectiveobservationalstudy |