2002 Volume 16 Issue 5 Pages 650-654
We reported a rare case of cervical thymic cyst including normal parathyroid tissue in its wall. The patient was a 43-year-old female who was admitted to our department for further evaluation of gradually increasing precordial compression since two years. Clinical examination showed an elastic and soft tumor (measuring 2.8×1.5cm) in the left neck. Cervical MRI films showed a cystic lesion in the anterior mediastinum extending to the left neck, which was revealed as a low intensity area on T1 and high intensity area on T2. Cervical ultrasonography also showed a cystic lesion with hypoechoic pattern. There were many ciliated columnar epithelia in the aspiration biopsy specimen. Based on these findings, we suspected cystic disease and operated to obtain a final diagnosis. Operative findings showed the cyst continuing to the left lobe of thymus, and we resected both the cyst and the left lobe of thymus. Pathological findings demonstrated that the cyst was covered with thymic tissue including Hassall's bodies, and the cystic lumen was composed of a layer of ciliated columnar epithelium. In addition, normal parathyroid tissue was observed in the cystic wall. We considered that the parathyroid tissue lost its way into the cystic wall during the prototype removing phase.
