J Korean Soc Med Ultrasound.  1999 Dec;18(4):325-328.

Fat Necrosis of the Breast: Sonographic Features

• Rhim SA
• Kim HH
• Cha ES
• Kim BS
• Choi KH

Abstract

PURPOSE: To describe the ultrasonographic (US) features of us fat necrosis of the breast.
MATERIALS and METHODS
The authors retrospectively reviewed US findings of 12 patients (all females, mean age 54 years) with histopathologically (n=9) or clinically (n=3) proven fat necrosis of the breast. On US, size, depth/width (D/W) ratio, shape, margin, location, echogenicity and retrotumoral echo(enhancement/attenuation), pattern of the superficial fascia, and skin change were analyzed by two radiologists in agreement.
RESULTS
On US, size of the lesion ranged between 0.9 and 4.0 cm in the greatest diameter (mean 2.2cm). The D/W ratio ranged between 0.4 and 0.7 (mean 0.55). The shapes of the lesions were oval in all cases. The margins of the lesions were ill-defined in 9 cases. All lesions were located in the subcutaneous fat layer and the echogenicity was hyperechoic in all cases. Nine patients showed inhomogeneous internal echogenicity. Five cases demonstrated posterior acoustic shadowing. In all cases, the lesions displaced the superficial fascia without disruption. Mild skin thickening was associated in 6 cases.
CONCLUSION
Fat necrosis of the breast had characteristic US features of heterogeneously high echogenic mass in subcutaneous fat layer.

MeSH Terms

Acoustics
Breast*
Fat Necrosis*
Female
Humans
Retrospective Studies
Shadowing (Histology)
Skin
Subcutaneous Fat
Subcutaneous Tissue
Ultrasonography*