Breast Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis affects over a billion people worldwide. There is a raise in incidence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in recent years. Mammary tuberculosis has been estimated to be 0.1 % of breast lesions examined histologically, and it constitutes about 3-4.5 % of surgically treated breast diseases in developing countries. Breast tuberculosis is paucibacillary and routine diagnostic tests such as microscopy, culture, and nucleic acid amplification tests such as polymerase chain reaction techniques do not have the same diagnostic utility as they do in pulmonary tuberculosis. Also, the histology resembles various other granulomatous mastitis. The coexistence of carcinoma and breast tuberculosis adds challenge to diagnosis. Correct diagnosis of tuberculous mastitis is important as the treatment of differential disease varies from steroid to surgery which can have devastating consequences in patients suffering from breast tuberculosis.