Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Observational Study
Protective reactive thymus hyperplasia in COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Patients with COVID-19 (COVID) may develop acute respiratory distress syndrome with or without sepsis, coagulopathy and visceral damage. While chest CT scans are routinely performed in the initial assessment of patients with severe pulmonary forms, thymus involvement and reactivation have not been investigated so far. ⋯ In COVID patients, thymus enlargement was frequent and associated with increased T lymphocyte production, which appears to be a beneficial adaptation to virus-induced lymphopaenia. The lack of thymic activity/reactivation in older SARS-CoV-2 infected patients could contribute to a worse prognosis.