Evaluation of the relationship between the presence of thymus gland and COVID-19 pneumonia in adult patients

B. Petik

Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Malatya Turgut Ozal University, Malatya, Turkey. petikbulent@yahoo.com

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• Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVE: There is a direct correlation between age and COVID-19 mortality. Some researchers have suggested that this may be related to the loss of volume and function of the thymus gland with age. We aimed at investigating the relationship between the presence of the thymus gland and the severity of coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) pneumonia in adult patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between May 2020 and May 2021, adult patients aged 20-60 years old who had been admitted to the emergency department and had a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test were included in the retrospective study.

RESULTS: The study reviewed a total of 465 patients, including 186 (40%) female, and 279 (60%) male patients. The mean age of patients was 40.46±12.18 years (range, 20-60). Pneumonia was detected in 281 (60.4%) of 465 patients. Of the total, 260 (55.9%) patients were detected with the thymus. Pneumonia was 3.85 times more common in patients without a thymus. The mean number of infected lung segments was 4.84 times higher in patients without a thymus. A negative correlation of -0.639 was found between the presence of the thymus and pneumonia.

CONCLUSIONS: For COVID-19 patients, there is a statistically significant correlation between the severity of lung findings on thorax CT examination and the level of involution in the patients’ thymus tissue. The presence of the thymus may be a good preventative for pneumonia.

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