Tuberc Respir Dis.
2004 Jan;56(1):103-108.
A Case of Thymolipoma Simulating Cardiomegaly
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea. wylee@wonju.yonsei.ac.kr
- 2Department of Pathology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea.
Abstract
- Thymolipoma is rare benign tumor of the thymic gland and mostly occurs at anterior mediastinum. Thymolipoma comprises 2~9% of thymic tumor and less than 1% of mediastinal mass. Therefore, thymolipoma should be differentiated from anterior mediastinal tumor such as thymoma, germ cell tumor and lymphoma. These tumors resemble cardiomegaly, pleural effusion, basal atelectasis, pericardial tumor and cyst, pleural tumor, lung cancer and pulmonary sequestration, and differentiated from above mentioned diseases. Though most cases are asymptomatic, there can be dyspnea with compression of adjacent organ by mass effect, and myasthenia gravis. We experienced a thymolipoma simulating cardiomegaly and report the case with the review of literatures.
