title: [Thymus pathological changes in perinatal babies and children].
abstract: The most outstanding pathological changes of perinatal babies and children, based on the review of the autopsy files in the 1st Affiliated Hospital of West China University of Medical Sciences, are lymphocytic depletion, and reticuloepithelial cell swelling and/or fusiform malformation in the cortex, while in the medulla apoptosis is more prominent. We suppose that these alterations are due to immaturity of cortical thymocytes, and in the diseased condition, they are easily affected by extraordinary factors, especially the influence of corticosterone inducing acute severe necrosis, so the number of lymphocytes are obviously diminished. But, in the medulla, as intact mature lymphocytes exist, physiological phenomenon such as apoptosis is rather prominent in it. While in the medulla, Hassall's corpuscles have various characteristic changes, such as cornification, calcification, fusion, cystic change and disintegration. Besides, we observed a new alteration in the thymus defined as vacuolization. All the above pathological changes reached the peak in the 28- day group; there after, they might become either worse or better according to the condition of the disease and growth of the body. However, these are still problems to be further studied separately.
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.forename: Z L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Q C
authors.initials: QC
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology*