Think Thymus, Think Well: the Chest X-Ray Thymic Signs

Chest x-ray is one of the most requested imaging tools for infants. Actually, in spite of continuing trends of radiology in diminishing the importance of conventional thorax radiology, neonatal radiography is still essential for clinicians. Therefore, it is important to have wide knowledge of typical signs of this examination. This article is focused on the normal radiologic finding of the thymus in children on the chest X-ray to make clinicians aware of it and prevent misdiagnosis of mediastinal expansive masses. We illustrate the main radiographic signs of the thymus related to the particular configuration of this “mysterious” gland.