Cervical ectopic thymus in a 9-month-old girl: diagnostic difficulties.
Ectopic cervical location of the thymus is a very rarely diagnosed developmental disorder in children. This anomaly is usually manifested clinically as a neck tumor suggesting lymphadenopathy, which is also differentiated from more frequently occurring cervical cysts, angiomas, or malignant neoplasms. A decisive examination is the histopathologic assessment of the tumor, supported by necessary immunoassays. A diagnostic process is sometimes very difficult and the results are ambiguous; what is more, this process has a decisive impact on the child's future life. Therefore, a histopathologic evaluation performed by 2 independent pathologists should become the standard procedure. We present the case of a 9-month-old girl, in whom, after a difficult diagnostic process, ectopic cervical location of the thymus was diagnosed.
Mizia-Malarz
Agnieszka
A
Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Chemotherapy, Medical University of Silesia, Upper Silesia Children's Health Care Centre, Katowice, Poland. a.mizia@wp.pl
Sobol
Grazyna
G
Maldyk
Jadwiga
J
Stolpa
Weronika
W
Szyszka
Anna
A
Wos
Halina
H
D002828:Choristoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009333:Neck; D013950:Thymus Gland