Radiology

Abstract

Radiology plays an important role in the investigation of patients with suspected thymic pathology. Imaging may detect incidental disease, confirm suspected disease, stage thymic malignancy, guide biopsy, gauge treatment response and occasionally enable an exact pathological diagnosis, for instance in thymic lipomas. To correctly interpret the appearance on plain chest radiography (CXR), computerised tomographic (CT) scans or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), it is essential to know the normal appearances of the thymus as it changes through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. This chapter discusses the appearance of the normal thymus, and the imaging appearances of diseases of the thymus. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.