Objective: We designed our study to prospectively assess a potential role for chemical-shift MR imaging in identifying a thymus that has not been completely replaced by fat tissue.
Conclusion: The thymic tissue revealed homogeneous decrease in intensity on opposed-phase MR images relative to that seen on in-phase images in 15 healthy volunteers and two patients with hyperplastic thymus. Chemical-shift MR imaging may be useful in identifying normal thymic tissue and the hyperplastic thymus in early adulthood.