Breast Tuberculosis: Still Common In India

Abstract

Breast tuberculosis is a rare form of tuberculosis. In last three years 1016 patients of breast lump were referred to single unit of pathology department. FNAC was performed in all the cases and 770 patients (75%) were diagnosed as benign breast disease while 246 patients (25%) were malignant. Out of 770 cases of benign disease, 42 patients (4.13%) had tuberculosis of breast. The mean age of the patient with tuberculosis was 33.71 year. 41 patients were female and one was male. 8 patients (19.04%) were lactating at the time of presentation. Most of these lumps were clinically misdiagnosed as benign breast disease (29cases) or malignancy (8 cases). In conclusion, although breast tuberculosis is extremely rare in developed countries but it is still common in developing countries like India. The diagnosis can be easily made from the FNAC of the suspected lump.