Disappearing breast calcifications.

Seventeen patients aged 47-67 years had 20 foci of disappearing breast calcifications. Firm compression was used to obtain craniocaudal and oblique mediolateral views of each patient. The authors categorized calcifications according to shape, size, number, position, and likelihood of benignity or malignancy. The right breast was the site of disappearing calcifications more often than the left. The most common configuration of disappearing calcifications was round or oval. All calcifications but one were found in dense glandular areas of the breast. Dense glandular tissue within 1 cm of the border with the stroma was the most common location. Only one of 20 foci suggested malignancy. The disappearance of breast calcifications is uncommon but probably not rare.