Question

What is Tietze disease, and does having it increase one's risk for breast cancer?

Answer

It is always very important that a careful history and examination is performed in order to establish a clear diagnosis of any chest pain. Tietze Syndrome is an inflammatory condition of the breast area, and is one form of costochondritis. Costochondritis is an inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone, or sternum. The condition causes localized chest pain that you can reproduce by pushing on the cartilage in the front of your ribcage. In general, costochondritis is a relatively harmless condition and usually goes away without treatment. Tietze Syndrome, on the other hand, is associated with swellings at the rib-cartilage junction, and lasts longer. (Costochondritis has no noticeable swelling.) Neither condition involves pus or abscess formation.

Tietze syndrome usually affects the bone-cartilage junctions of the second and third ribs. The swelling may last for several months. The syndrome can develop as a complication of surgery on your sternum, months to years after the operation. However, the cause is usually unknown.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used for the pain, and sometimes local injections of corticosteroids are required.

In women, breast pain is cyclical or non-cyclical. In cyclical breast pain there is a clear relationship with the menstrual cycle. A number of other conditions (apart from breast cancer) can give rise to non-cyclical pain in the breast. In these conditions, the pain is present most of the time at varying levels of intensity, but is not related to the menstrual cycle. Such conditions include inflammation of the costochondral junctions (Tietze syndrome), trauma, "trigger point" mastalgia, fat necrosis, fibroadenomas and breast cysts.

The links below give more information on these topics.

Links

• Costochondritis
• Breast pain