Case ReportEccrine acrospiroma of breast: mammographic and ultrasound findings
Introduction
There are two types of sweat glands in the human body: eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine glands are the smaller, numerous glands that are diffusely distributed all over the body and are under thermal control. These are most abundant in axillae, palms and soles. Apocrine glands are the larger glands found in axillae, perineum and mammary glands and are the phylogenetic remnant of the mammalian sexual scent glands. Acrospiroma is a benign sweat gland tumour, traditionally classified as a tumour of eccrine gland origin, however, there has been evidence of apocrine origin in some lesions.1 We present the ultrasound and mammographic findings in a case of eccrine acrospiroma in the axillary tail of the breast in a 77-year-old woman. There have been a few case reports describing the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of this tumour, but there has been no prior description of the ultrasound findings in the literature to the best of our knowledge.
Section snippets
Case report
A 77-year-old woman presented to the Department of Breast Imaging, Mount Sinai Hospital for routine annual screening mammography. Her left medio-lateral oblique (MLO) mammogram showed a well-circumscribed, lobulated, high-density lesion with specks of calcification in the axilla (Fig. 1a and b). The mass was not seen in the cranio-caudal (CC) projection. Her previous mammograms were performed elsewhere and were not available for review. Upon questioning, she claimed to have had a slowly growing
Discussion
Eccrine acrospiroma is an uncommon, benign, skin adenexal tumour. This tumour is known by various names which include: clear cell hidradenoma, nodular hidradenoma, solid cystic hidradenoma, clear cell myoepithelioma, eccrine sweat gland adenoma of clear cell type and dermal sweat duct tumour. The tumour is located in the superficial and deep dermis and may extend into the subcutaneous tissues. The epidermis is not involved.
Clinically eccrine acrospiroma presents as a slowly growing, sharply
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