Sonoelastography findings for idiopathic granulomatous mastitis.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: In this paper we describe sonoelastography findings for idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM), the clinical and radiological features of which often mimic those of breast carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, sonoelastography findings for patients with pathologically proved IGM were studied. Twenty-seven patients with pathologically proved IGM were enrolled in the study. All were female, and the mean age was 37.81 years (standard deviation 7.10 years; range 24 to 56 years). Elasticity scores (ES), strain ratios (SR), and elastic diameters (ED) were evaluated for the lesions. RESULTS: Ten lesions (37.0 %) were diffuse, six (22.2 %) were tubular, six (22.2 %) were a mass, and five (18.5 %) were cystic in appearance on ultrasonography. On sonoelastography, mean ES ± standard deviation was 1.66 ± 0.55 (between 1.00 and 3.00); mean SR ± standard deviation was 1.10 ± 0.79 (between 0.29 and 4.00). ED was no different between grey-scale and sonoelastogram images. CONCLUSIONS: The features of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis suggest it is benign in nature.