Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Other full case
Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: a great imitator?
  1. Annabel M Ruiter,
  2. Irene L Vegting,
  3. Prabath W B Nanayakkara
  1. Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Prabath W B Nanayakkara, p.nanayakkara{at}vumc.nl

Summary

The patient in this case was seen by numerous doctors for a long time before the diagnosis was made because, right from the start, an abscess or a cancer of the breast was suspected. She was first seen by her general practitioner (GP); thereafter, she went to two consultant physicians and a surgeon in a regional hospital and eventually an idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) diagnosis was made by a specialist in internal medicine in a university hospital. When the diagnosis IGM was made, the patient was treated with steroids and made a complete recovery. Although the incidence of IGM is not high, the GPs are likely to see these patients initially and should be aware of the existence of this disease, which may spare the patient unnecessary consultations, diagnostics tests or even mastectomy.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.