Breast tuberculosis: a case report

We present a case of mastitis in a 45-year-old woman with no history of infection in other areas of the body, with unspecific clinical picture, imaging studies, and bacilloscopy. However, histological samples obtained by aspiration showed giant epithelial cells, necrosis, and granulomatous formations, which justified a clinical inclination toward tuberculosis. In the absence of confirmatory evidence of any lesions in other tissues, the existence of mastitis of torpid evolution is a clinical indication to suspect mammary tuberculosis, since the characteristics of the process usually lead to erroneous diagnoses with other breast tumors such as cancer. Tuberculosis in the breast is a rare disease with a difficult diagnosis due to the low clinical and microbiological evidence and the lack of specificity of the imaging results, so the suspicion of its real diagnostic possibility is a fundamental condition for its determination, even when the causal agent is not confirmed.