Breast edema can be caused by a variety of pathologic processes of benign or malignant diseases. It may occur with inflammatory breast carcinoma, lymphatic obstruction, mastitis, lymphoma, post-radiation changes or systemic conditions such as congestive heart failure and nephritic/nephrotic syndrome. Initial mammography and breast ultrasound examination are the routine investigations utilized for breast lesions.Unfortunately, their findings are frequently nonspecific.(1) The aim of the study is to assess the role of dual energy contrast enhanced digital mammography (CEDM) in detection and characterization of breast lesions in...

30 female patients were enrolled in the study.Their age ranged from 29 to 80 years old, the mean age is about 54.5 years and the median is 49.5 Patients’ clinical presentations vary as follows: 14/30 patients were presenting with palpable lump as well as the swollen breast. 8/30 patients breast edema was their first presentation. 4/8 had history of MRM of the contralateral breast for more than two years duration. 6/30 patients underwent conservative breast surgery and axillary evacuation. 5/6 received and ended their chemotherapy...

2 patients had bilateral breast edema while 28 patients had unilateral breast edema. The unilateral breast edemas were 16 left sided and 12 right sided. The edematous breasts with a diagnosis of inflammatory or post-operative negative result we considered them as benign for statistical analysis. Taking the probability of malignancy; masses, micro-calcific clusters or dense axillary lymph nodes as detected by MX were considered as positive test results while by US masses &/or pathological axillary lymph nodes were considered as positive results. 8/32 (25%) edematous...

The addition of dual energy CEDMtechnique to conventional sono-mammography improve differentiating benign from malignant lesions and increase cancer detection rate It significantly improve: The detection of underlying breast lesions in edematous breasts. The determination of the extent of disease. The assessment of chemotherapeutic response. Follow up of post conservative breast surgery and radiotherapy.

Ola Magdy Mohamed Shetatis a graduate ofCairo University faculty of Medicine the year 2009 and is working as a radiology resident in National Cancer Institute.Cairo university from March 2011 till present. Work in the master degree in Radiology is still in process. E-mail address : [email protected].

(1) An YY, Kim SH, Cha ES et al, Diffuse infiltrative lesion of the breast: clinical and radiologic features, Korean J Radiology 2011,113-121.