Borens-Fefer B, Engohan-Aloghe C, Noël J C, Simon Ph, Bucella D, Boutemy R
Department of Radiology, ULB, Erasme Hospital, 808, Route de Lennik, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium.
JBR-BTR. 2008 Mar-Apr;91(2):54-7.
We present a case of primary mammary tuberculosis (MT), an extremely uncommon pathology, revealed by a voluminous tubercular abscess mimicking a recurrent pyogenic abscess. It was correctly diagnosed after a while because of partial response to antibiotics with a disappearance of the diffuse inflammatory components explained by the effect held concurrently by some antibiotic on a probable staphylococcic superinfection and its bactericidal effect against BK. This is the most common presentation of the mammary forms of the MT and the diagnosis particularly makes sense in this case matching several risk factors: female gender, lactation, young age, and origin from an endemic area. Furthermore the persistence of an abscess after a well driven medical treatment should always make search the presence of BK.
