Status thymo-lymphaticus and its relation to sudden death / by Gerhard Hutchison Cocks.

  • Cocks, Gerhard Hutchison.
Date:
1910
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Status thymo-lymphaticus and its relation to sudden death / by Gerhard Hutchison Cocks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (Reprint from 7 uly, 1910.) (Z> STATUS THYJVUHLYMPHATICUS AND ITS RELATION TO SUDDEN DEATH.* BY GERHARD HUTCHISON COCKS, M. D., NEW YORK CITY. Adults and children with the condition known as status thymo- lymphaticus are especially liable to die from infectious disease, and are particularly subject to death from shock and death from anesthesia. The term status thvmo-lymphaticus, or status lymphaticus, is applied to people who present hyperplasia of the thymus gland, lymph-nodes, tonsils, lymphatic elements of the spleen and intes- tinal tract, and lymphoid marrow of the long bones. Associated with this condition are often found hypoplasia of the heart and arteries, evidences of infantilism, signs of old or recent rickets, abnormalities of the thyroid gland, idiopathic epilepsy (Ohlmacher), acromegalia, Addison’s disease and myxedema. There are many grades of status lymphaticus from cases showing simple hyper- plasia of the thymus to those exhibiting extreme enlargement of this gland with pronounced hyperplasia of all the lymphatic ele- ments of the body. There is considerable doubt that status thymicus and.status lym- phaticus are identical conditions. Adami and Nicholls state that they personally regard the thymus as.a lymphatic organ. .Accord- ing to Hart, the newer investigations of Wiesel and Hedinger tend to prove that the two are essentially different phenomena. In pure status lymphaticus there is present a hypoplasia of the chromaffin system, especially in the adrenals, analogous to that found in Ad- dison’s disease. -In pure thymus hyperplasia, on the contrary, the chromaffin system is always well-developed. Again, the thymus is developmentaily an epithelial organ, derived from the hypoblast of the third visceral cleft. The epithelial elements gradually atrophy, the sole representatives of their existence being the ITas- sall bodies, which are supposed to be due to the coalescence of the epithelial remnants. The structure is finally substituted by vas- cular connective tissue from which the lymphoid elements are de- rived (Adami and Nicholls). Thus the thymus at birth consists •Read before the Section on Laryngology and Khtnology of the New York Academy of Medicine, April 27, 11)10.