Nipple leiomyoma

A thirty-one-year-old female presented with a painful left nipple swelling. On examination, a tender, swelling arising from the nipple measuring 1 cm X 1 cm was found. The lesion was completely excised. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of nipple leiomyoma

Breast hamartomas: a hidden diagnosis

Breast hamartomas are rare and poorly defined tumors made of glandular, adipose and fibrous tissue. We present two cases of breast hamartomas diagnosed within one year. Mammograms performed for both patients were not suggestive of a breast hamartoma and a prospective diagnosis could only be obtained through MRI in one patient. Both diagnoses were confirmed by histopathology. Despite the increasing incidence of breast hamartomas as a result of increased screening, the diagnosis of breast hamartoma may be missed due to the variability in its mammographic and histopathological findings

accuracy of PET-CT scan in detecting axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of positron emission tomography CT scan in detecting axillary lymph node metastases compared to the pathology results in patients with primary breast cancer

Setting: Breast Surgery Unit, King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain

Design: A Retrospective Comparative Study

Method: Twenty-one newly diagnosed females with invasive breast cancer and staged using FDGPET-CT scan. Images were evaluated by two experienced radiologists for any abnormal increase in axillary FDG uptake. Imaging results were compared to axillary lymph node pathology, such as sentinel lymph node biopsy, FNA cytology from axilla or axillary clearance

Result: All patients had histopathology results that matched the PET-CT finding except 2 [10%] patients who matched the CT scan alone but not the PET scan. The sensitivity of the PET-CT for detection of axillary lymph node metastasis in this series was 80% and the specificity was 100%. Both sensitivity and specificity were noted to be high compared to other published data

Conclusion: PET-CT scan is highly sensitive and specific in detecting axillary lymph nodes metastases in breast cancer. The sensitivity reached 80% and the specificity was 100% in our study; this could be attributed to the small number of patients and the improvement in the new generation of the PET-CT scanners with high resolution, which led to further increase in the diagnostic value. Therefore, recent evidence does not support the use of PET-CT scan to replace clinically negative axillary lymph nodes as initial assessment

Pilomatrixoma

Pilomatrixoma is a benign skin tumor that arises from the hair cell matrix. It is a rare tumor that commonly presents in certain locations of the body. We present a seventeen-year-old female with pilomatrixoma located in the lateral aspect of the right thigh. The tumor is rare and presented in a rare location