Tubercular mastitis - a great masquerader.
Tubercular mastitis is a rare clinical entity as mammary gland tissue, like     spleen and skeletal muscle, offers resistance to the survival and multiplication     of the tubercle bacillus. Tuberculosis of the breast can mimic carcinoma,     whereas in young patients it can be mistaken for a pyogenic breast abscess, thus     labeled a "great masquerader" in recognition of its multifaceted     presentation. Breast tuberculosis commonly affects women in the reproductive age     group, between 21 and 30 years, and is rare in prepubescent females and elderly     women. Fine needle aspiration cytology is very useful and it is a promising     technique in expert hands. In tuberculosis-endemic countries, the finding of     granuloma on fine needle aspiration cytology warrants empirical treatment for     tuberculosis even in the absence of positive acid-fast bacilli and without     culture results. We hereby report a case of tubercular mastitis in a     post-menopausal seronegative female diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology     with a positive acid-fast bacilli and a review of the recent literature.
Department of Pathology, R G Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata, India. drmarur@yahoo.com
Sonia
S
Gon
Aditi
A
Bhattacharyya
Bipasa
B
Majumdar
Soumya
S
Kundu
D000038:Abscess / Q000175:diagnosis; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008413:Mastitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology