Mucocoele-like lesions detected by the mammographic presence of suspicious clustered microcalcifications

Abstract

Abstract Six impalpable mucocoele-like lesions of the breast were detected by mammographic screening of 16000 women over a 15-month period in the Avon (Bristol) Breast Screening Programme as a result of suspicious clustered microcalcifications. The clusters measured between 5 mm and 50 mm. Five contained a small cluster between 5 mm and 15 mm, but one exhibited bizarre calcifications and soft-tissue densities over an area of 50 mm; two adjacent clusters displayed a crescentic (‘tea-cup’) morphology in some of the individual microcalcifications. Their mammographic appearances were pleomorphic. In this period calcified mucocoele-like lesions were detected both in a cohort of approximately 4500 women aged 50–52 years called for prevalent-round screening, and 11500 women involved in incident-round screening. However, not all mucocoele-like lesions are associated with mammographic microcalcification, and not all mucocoele-like lesions detected by microcalcification are associated with high-risk or frankly neoplastic lesions.