I am 30. I was diagnosed with a swollen thymus gland, what could this mean?
I also have a swollen lympnode in my neck, it has not gone away for a month and has not responded to any antibiotic treatment. My blood test are all fine, but My blood pressure is slightly high. My thymus gland was spotted being swollen on a cat scan in which my doctor ordered, after my chest xray came back abnormal. I’m worried, of course, but could this be cancer, which is my biggest fear.
Tagged with: antibiotic treatment • blood pressure • blood test • cancer • cat scan • fear • lympnode • thymus • thymus gland
Filed under: blood pressure treatment
The thymus gland is a pink-grey organ that lies in the upper part of the mediastinum behind the sternum and extends upwards into the root of the neck. It weighs about 10 to 15 g.(about half an ounce) at birth and begins to grow until the individual reaches puberty when it begins to atrophy. It’s maximum weight is around 30 – 40g (around 1 to 1.5 ounces) by the age of 40 it has returned to it’s weight at birth. The thymus consists of two lobes connected by areolar tissue. The lobes are enclosed in a fibrous capsule which dips into their substance dividing them into lobules that consist of an irregular branching framework of epithelial cells and lymphocytes. Lymphocytes originate from haemocytoblasts (stem cells) in red bone marrow. Those that enter the thymus mature and develop into activated T-lymphocytes – these T-lymphocytes govern cellular immunity which means that they help cells recognize and destroy invading bacteria, viruses, etc., abnormal cell growth such as cancer, and foreign tissue – and then able to respond to antigens encountered elsewhere in the body. They then divide into two groups – those that enter the blood, some of which remain in circulation and some lodge in other lymphoid tissue and those that remain in the thymus gland and are the source of future generations of T- lymphocytes. The maturation of the thymus and other lymphoid tissue is stimulated by thymosin, a hormone secreted by the epithelial cells that form the framework of the thymus gland. Involution of the gland begins in adolescence and, with increasing age the effectiveness of T- lymphocyte response to antigens declines. You state that the C.A.T scan – Computerised (Axial) Tomography – showed your thymus was enlarged. (There is another test named PET which stands for Positron Emission Tomography. This is a type of scan developed in the 1970s. It can show how body tissues are working, as well as what they look like.) If the report stated that your thymus was ‘abnormally’ enlarged, then malignancy will have to be excluded. However, sometimes an enlarged thymus appears after a long bout of heavy coughing etc, so do not become too alarmed at these words. Consult your doctor and ask the relevant questions. If you have not been invited back for further tests, the signs point towards there not being a problem.
I add a link with details of this subject
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Thymus
Hope this helps
matador 89