Chest
Volume 79, Issue 3, March 1981, Pages 350-351
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Selected Reports
Carcinoid Tumor of the Thymus Associated With Recurrent Pericarditis

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A 49-year-old man with carcinoid tumor of the thymus presented with the clinical picture of acute pericarditis. Recurrent bouts persisted after removal of the tumor without other evidence to indicate tumor recurrence. There were no associated manifestations of an endocrine disorder.

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CASE Report

A 49-year-old man was found to have a round, anterior mediastinal mass on a chest x-ray film taken on Feb 23, 1977. A month earlier, he had experienced an episode of right shoulder pain radiating to the upper sternal region, which was made worse by deep breathing and which subsided spontaneously.

Roentgenographic examination in March 1977 showed no change. Arch aortography and tomography added no new information. Tomograms failed to show calcium within the tumor, and the visualized surrounding

DISCUSSION

Carcinoid tumors occur uncommonly in the thymus.6, 7 They may or may not be associated with Cushing's syndrome, with the syndrome of multiple endocrine adenomatosis, and with other systemic manifestations.1, 3 As with other thymic tumors, they may be clinically silent and found by a routine chest x-ray film, or they may present with symptoms of local invasion.1 These tumors tend to be more aggressive than thymomas, but prolonged survival after local invasion and distal spread is not uncommon.1,

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge the considerable assistance of Dr. Theodor K. Shnitka, Department of Pathology, The University of Alberta. His help in the preparation of this manuscript has been invaluable.

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    Pericarditis: a ten-year survey

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  • J Rosai et al.

    Carcinoid tumor and oat cell carcinoma of the thymus

  • WR Salyer et al.

    Carcinoid tumors of the thymus

    Cancer

    (1976)
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