What are the symptoms of damaged breast ducts?

The symptoms of damaged mammary ducts are actually not that obvious. For this reason, many patients will not notice any abnormal reactions when the disease first occurs. Only when the disease begins to worsen will it slowly occur. At this time, they will feel that their body's excretion is impaired, and some inflammatory changes will also occur. These symptoms are very common.

1. Catheter excretion disorder:

(1) Congenital nipple deformity, depression, uncleanness or foreign hair and fibers may cause blockage of the nipple pore, abnormal duct development, poor mammary structure, epithelial hyperplasia, inflammation, injury, etc., which may cause duct stenosis, interruption or occlusion. Poor duct drainage is often the main reason for the progression of the galactorrhea stage to the lump stage.

(2) Secretions accumulate in the duct, causing duct dilatation.

(3) In some middle-aged and elderly women, due to ovarian dysfunction, the mammary ducts undergo degeneration, the duct walls relax, and the contractility of the myoepithelial cells decreases, leading to accumulation of secretions in the ducts and expansion of the duct lumen, causing this disease.

2. Abnormal hormone stimulation:

Abnormal sex hormone stimulation can induce abnormal secretion of the duct epithelium, causing the duct to dilate significantly.

Generally speaking, the presence of obstruction alone without abnormal hormonal stimulation to promote epithelial secretion will not cause duct dilatation.

3. Infection:

It may be related to anaerobic infection or areola infection.

After a more detailed study, Adai (1933) found that in the later stages of the disease, the secretions of the mammary ducts not only stimulate the ductal dilation, but also overflow from the ducts, producing chemical substances after decomposition, which cause chemical stimulation and antigenic reaction of the surrounding tissues, leading to an inflammatory reaction around the ducts characterized by plasma cell infiltration, and named it "plasma cell mastitis".

This disease is more common in non-lactating or menopausal women over 40 years old, often with a history of lactation disorders. The lesions are usually confined to one side, but both breasts may be affected simultaneously. Nipple discharge is sometimes the first and only symptom of this disease. Compression of the mammary gland at multiple locations can cause secretions to overflow from the nipple. The lesions often involve a large number of milk ducts and may occupy more than half of the areola. Nipple discharge is often intermittent, sometimes coming and sometimes not.

The above clinical manifestations do not develop according to the rules in all patients, that is, the first symptom may not be nipple discharge or acute inflammation. It may be a lump under the areola or a paraareolar fistula that does not heal for a long time.

In addition, according to the pathological changes and course of the disease, the clinical manifestations can be divided into three stages.