Elsevier

Clinical Imaging

Volume 37, Issue 3, May–June 2013, Pages 574-576
Clinical Imaging

Case Report
Periductal mastitis mimicking breast cancer in a male breast

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinimag.2012.09.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Periductal mastitis in a male patient rarely has been reported in the English literature. Herein, we now present a rare case of periductal mastitis mimicking breast cancer, both clinically and radiologically, in a 37-year-old man. Mammogram and sonogram showed a mass with irregular shape, spiculated margin and a nipple retraction, mimicking a male breast cancer. Radiologic and pathologic correlation is provided.

Introduction

Periductal mastitis generally refers to periductal inflammation with inflammatory cells in the breast [1], [2]. In male patients, this disease has been rarely reported but considered as the same disease as periductal mastitis of the female breast [3]. Only 14 cases have been reported, and reports on imaging features have been exceedingly rare [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]. A sonographic image was reported in only one case [3].

Herein, we present a rare case of periductal mastitis of the male breast that clinically and radiologically simulated a breast cancer.

Section snippets

Case report

A 37-year-old man visited our breast clinic with a chief complaint of a painful lump in his left breast in the subareolar area. He had noticed the lump 2 months prior. On physical examination, it was hard, and there was tenderness and nipple retraction. The clinical impression was male breast cancer. As a first step for diagnosis, we performed a mammography. On the mammogram, the lesion was revealed as an irregular, spiculated isodense mass, with nipple retraction and mild skin thickening in

Discussion

Periductal mastitis was commonly called by its synonyms, such as nonlactational mastitis, plasma cell mastitis, comedomastitis, mammary duct ectasia, and secretory disease [1], [2], [3]. This disease affects nonlactating women between the ages of 19 and 48 years (usually in perimenopausal years), and it is characterized by periareolar inflammation with predominant plasma cell infiltration, and for this reason, the term plasma cell mastitis has been used [2], [3].

In female patients, clinical

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