Definition
Periductal mastitis (PDM)/Duct ectasia (DE) is a common benign breast condition mostly seen in women. It is still debatable whether they are two clinical and pathological entities, which affect different age groups and have different etiologies or if PDM and DE are part of the same disease process, PDM preceding DE.
PDM/DE affects larger ducts and is characterized by duct dilatation, periductal inflammation, and fibrosis.
Clinical Features
Incidence
DE represents an incidental finding in about 8% of patients undergoing breast surgery.
Age
PDM/DE occurs most frequently in women between the age 30 and 70 years. In infancy (average age is 38 months) and childhood, bleeding is the most common presenting symptom and the male:female ratio is 10:4, in contrast to adult population, probably representing a developmental abnormality (McHoney et al. 2011).
Sex
More frequent in women. It is very rare in men as...
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References and Further Reading
Dabbs, D. (2016). Breast pathology (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier [2017].
Damiani, S., Cattani, M., Buonamici, L., & Eusebi, V. (1998). Mammary foam cells. Virchows Archiv, 432, 433–440.
Dixon, J., Anderson, T., Lumsden, A., Elton, R., Roberts, M., & Forrest, A. (1983). Mammary duct ectasia. British Journal of Surgery, 70, 601–603.
Dixon, J., Ravisekar, O., Chetty, U., & Anderson, T. (1996). Periductal mastitis and duct ectasia: Different conditions with different aetiologies. British Journal of Surgery, 83, 820–822.
Kamal, R., Hamed, S., & Salem, D. (2009). Classification of inflammatory breast disorders and step by step diagnosis. The Breast Journal, 15, 367–380.
Liu, L., Zhou, F., Wang, P., Yu, L., Ma, Z., Li, Y., Gao, D., Zhang, Q., Li, L., & Yu, Z. (2017). Periductal mastitis: An inflammatory disease related to bacterial infection and consequent immune responses? Mediators of Inflammation, 2017, 5309081.
McHoney, M., Munro, F., & MacKinlay, G. (2011). Mammary duct ectasia in children: Report of a short series and review of the literature. Early Human Development, 87, 527–530.
Moinfar, F. (2007). Essentials of diagnostic breast pathology. Berlin: Springer.
O’Malley, F., & Pinder, S. (2011). Breast pathology (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier.
Ramalingam, K., Vuthaluru, S., Srivastava, A., Dinda, A., & Dhar, A. (2017). Ultra structural changes occurring in duct ectasia and periductal mastitis and their significance in etiopathogenesis. PLoS One, 12, e0173216.
Rosen, P., Hoda, S., Brogi, E., & Koerner, F. (2014). Rosen’s breast pathology (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Sweeney, D., & Wylie, E. (1995). Mammographic appearances of mammary duct ectasia that mimic carcinoma in a screening programme. Australasian Radiology, 39, 18–23.
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Amendoeira, I., Fernandes, M.S. (2018). Duct Ectasia and Periductal Mastitis. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_4705-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_4705-1
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