Morphologic changes in breast biopsies after duct endoscopy

Duct endoscopy is a recent technique used for a direct view of the breast d uctal system. The aim of this study is to determine any morphological chang es in breast tissue attributable to low-pressure irrigation with saline sol ution that the technique requires. A total of 26 breast biopsies from patie nts who underwent ductal endoscopy before surgery were compared with 26 bre ast specimens from the retroareolar region. Breast specimens from duct endo scopy showed more frequent epithelial detachment (73%), epithelial loss (35 %), periductal clefts (77%), stromal disaggregation (46%) and displacement of epithelial cells into the stroma (27%) than the control group in which e pithelial detachment was seen in 4% of patients, periductal clefts in 15%, and stromal disaggregation in 15%. Epithelial loss and epithelial displacem ent where not seen in the control group. Although low-pressure fluid perfus ion used for duct endoscopy induced morphological changes in breast tissue, these call easily be distinguished from malignancy, and are most likely to occur as the result of duct rupture. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.