|
|
Article: Ectopic Cervical Thymic Tissue: Diagnosis by Fine Needle Aspiration.
- Article from:
- Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
- Article date:
- February 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 College of American Pathologists. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Diagnosis by Fine Needle Aspiration
The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ in infancy and early childhood. It initially appears early in fetal life and plays a critical role in the development of cell-mediated immunity. Ectopic cervical thymus is rarely reported, because thymic vestiges often remain asymptomatic and unrecognized by clinicians. Most of these lesions arise as a consequence of migrational defects during thymic embryogenesis. Since 1901, approximately 90 cases of aberrant cervical solid and cystic thymic lesions have been reported in the literature and were identified at either surgery or autopsy.[1-3] Nearly two thirds of all reported cases were ...