COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY STUDY OF THE THYMUS AT A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE OF NEPAL

Abstract

Background: Thymus is a small, irregular shaped gland mainly concerned with immune function. Studies have shown that in different age groups and in genders, the morphology of thymus is variable. Hence this study was aimed to access the different shapes, size of thymus gland using Computed tomography scan.

Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Department of Radiology and Imaging, College of medical sciences, Bharatpur, Nepal.  This study was conducted for a period of three months among 104 patients. Computed tomography examination was conducted by the Toshiba 160 slice CT scanner with slice thickness of 1.5mm. Statistical analysis was done with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Only descriptive statistics were employed and the results were presented in tabular format.

Results: In total 104 patients participated in this study. The frequency of male was 39 (37.5%) and female 65 (62.5%). The mean age of patients was 55±15.1 years. The mean anteroposterior diameter in the male was 17.62±5.98 mm and in female it was 16.02±5.78 mm, similarly the transverse diameter in male was 30.85±11.85 and in female it was 28.80±10.23 mm. Triangular morphology was most common among both male and female with frequency of 31(79.5%) and 34(52.3%) respectively.

Conclusions: Thymus gland is slightly larger in males than females. From this study we can conclude that triangular thymic shape was most frequently observed morphological shape in both male and female.