Evaluation of the Significance of Incidental Breast Lesions Detected by Chest CT

Although many women participate in breast screening programs, multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) often provides the first images of the breast when patients undergo chest MDCT for evaluation of pulmonary or cardiac disease (14). Since an MDCT scan provides improved contrast resolution, a larger field of view, and has cross sectional capability, breast lesions may be viewed more easily with a MDCT scan (1, 5, 6). With the increasing use of MDCT, a growing number of unexpected breast abnormalities of uncertain clinical significance have been observed. In practice, few studies have demonstrated the significance of incidentally detected breast lesions on MDCT (3, 4). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of incidentally detected breast lesions during assessment of chest related symptoms on a chest CT scan.