The Size of the Thymus, Fetal Infection, and Congenital Malformations
Appeared in the second half of the twentieth century testimony of the thymus to the system of immune protection and recognition of its leading role in the structure of cellular immunity has not led to the creation of a single concept in relation to the phenomenon of thymomegali, i.e. a condition in which the size of the thymus significantly exceeds the average for a given age. In relation to thymomegali continue to exist polar points of view, and in one extreme, researchers driven without evidence to argue that timomegalia is a physiological condition, the other opponents stating otherwise. In the present work the authors on the basis of the analysis of 200 protocols postmortem studies stillborn fetuses of different gestational age and newborn children who lived less than 48 hours included in the study by the method of continuous sampling, they have developed a method of determining the size of the thymus by three parameters was detected in the specified contingent that death was lowest in the group of fetuses and newborn infants with an average value of the thymus and the highest in the group with timomegalia (difference statistically significant, p < 0.05). It is established that the infection of the body stillborn fetuses and children who lived less than 48 hours was not associated with the size of the thymus of these individuals, while congenital malformations of various organs and systems and fettiplace statistically significantly more prevalent in the group of individuals with timomegalia, compared to individuals with an average of thymic hypoplasia of the body (p < 0.05). From all defects and fettiplace have attracted the most attention coarctation of the aorta, in which a group of individuals with an average value of the thymus was not detected in any monitoring, as compared with the group indevelop with hypoplasia of the thymus, the difference was statistically significant ( p < 0.05). Thus, individuals with congenital timomegalia belong to the group of persons with impaired health status, and the innate timomegalia most likely is either a malformation or fettiplace.