Dubois Abscess

DUBOIS ABSCESS (R. Dubois), a special change of the thymus gland, first described by the French physician Dubois in 1850; it occurs in newborns and consists in the fact that the thymus gland turns out to be penetrated by cavities filled with pus. Microscopically it is found that the wall of the cavities is formed by the gland's reticular cells arranged like stratified squamous epithelium, and the contents consist of freely lying lymphocytes and leukocytes. The remaining tissue of the thymus gland is in a state of underdevelopment and atrophy in this case. The origin of A. D. is explained differently: some consider that A. D. represent expanded, filled with pus and delayed in normal development epithelial ducts from which the gland develops; others link them with the decay and suppuration of the gland's Hassall bodies (see); finally, the majority of authors see the basis of the process in focal necrosis of the gland tissue with subsequent sequestration and liquefaction of the necrotic areas, accumulation in the formed cavities of lymphocytes and leukocytes, and formation of an epithelial lining from the reticular cells. With complete disintegration and resorption of the cellular contents of the cavities, their lumens turn out to be filled with transparent fluid (so-called Bednar's cysts of the thymus gland). Dubois abscesses are extremely characteristic for congenital syphilis of newborns, pale spirochetes were found in their contents. Lit.: Nattag, Zieglers Beitrage zur patholog. Anatomie, 1920, B. LXVI, p. 37, 195.