Roentgen appearance of fat necrosis in the breast.

With increasing acceptance of mammography as a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of breast disease, more mammograms are being obtained throughout the country, and as experience is gained in this relatively new discipline, the pitfalls of mammographic diagnosis are increasingly recognized. The roentgen appearance of some benign disease processes may simulate and be easily confused with that of carcinoma. In Egan's original series (2) of 2,000 consecutive mammograms, for example, 11 of 30 breast abscesses were misinterpreted as malignant lesions. Other sources of false diagnoses in this series included sclerosing adenosis, fibrocystic disease, fibroadenoma, and fat necrosis. The present communication deals with the last entity, of which 3 cases have come to our attention. In each instance a false positive diagnosis of malignant tumor was made from the mammograms. Case Reports Case I: This 66-year-old woman had noted a small lump in the upper outer quadrant of the left breast three weeks before admission. Two ...