title: Distribution of thymic tissue in the mediastinal adipose tissue.
abstract: The distribution of thymic tissue in the anterior mediastinal, retrocarinal, and preaortic fat was examined histologically in 27 autopsy subjects. Thymic tissue was found in the anterior mediastinal fat in 12 subjects (44.4%), in the retrocarinal fat in two (7.4%), and in the preaortic fat in none. The finding of ectopic thymic tissue in these areas has not been reported previously, would appear to be surgically inaccessible via a median sternotomy, and may be responsible in part for some of the failures of thymectomy in the treatment of myasthenia gravis.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, Nagoya City University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fukai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Funato
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Masaoka
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002828:Choristoma / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007633:Keratins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D007633:Keratins