title: Natural history of cystic disease: the importance of cyst type.
abstract: All breast cysts aspirated from a series of 100 patients followed for a minimum period of 2 years were classified on the basis of electrolyte composition as apocrine or flattened, this being the nature of the epithelium lining the two populations of breast cysts. Patients with a single cyst were more than 3 times as likely to have a flattened rather than an apocrine cyst. Multiple cysts, whether simultaneous or sequential in any individual patient, were usually all of the same type, and were more commonly apocrine than flattened. A comparison of the frequency of subsequent cysts in patients whose initial cysts were of either apocrine or flattened type showed further cysts were over 5 times more common in patients who presented with apocrine cysts. These observations suggest that the natural history of cystic disease is closely related to cyst type.
mesh_terms: D004848:Epithelium / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005348:Fibrocystic Breast Disease / Q000032:analysis / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011188:Potassium / Q000032:analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012964:Sodium / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012964:Sodium; D011188:Potassium