BACKGROUND: Granulomatous mastitis, a rare condition of unknown etiology, affects women of childbearing age and clinically simulates breast carcinoma. CASE: Granulomatous mastitis of the breast in a 32-year-old female was studied by fine needle aspiration cytology. Aspirated material was quite cellular and consisted of epithelioid histiocytes, lymphocytes, plasma cells, neutrophils and multinucleated Langhans-type giant cells. However, no cheesy, necrotic material in the background was noted. CONCLUSION: Granulomatous mastitis, although infrequently reported, appears to have rather characteristic cellular features that may allow its recognition.
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Kobayashi et al. (1998) studied this question.