Women on Dialysis Have More Breast Calcifications

NEW YORK AUG 21, 2006 (Reuters Health) - Women who have end-stage renal disease and are on dialysis are more likely to have breast calcifications seen on a mammogram than women in the general population, a study shows.

While most of these calcifications are benign in nature, the occurrence of malignancy-associated calcification is slightly greater in dialysis patients.
 
Dr. Mario Castellanos from Staten Island University Hospital in New York and colleagues compared the mammograms of 45 women with end-stage renal disease on long-term dialysis therapy with those of 86 "control" women of similar age with no kidney disease.
 
Breast calcifications were seen in 84.4 percent of the dialysis group compared with 59 percent of the control group, the investigators report in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.  The increased incidence was due largely to calcifications associated with benign-appearing features on the mammograms.
 
After the initial mammogram, 8.8 percent of the dialysis group were called back for a second mammogram, compared with 3.5 percent of the control group -- a difference that wasn"t significant from a statistical standpoint.

However, compared with the control group, the rate of malignancy-associated calcifications was slightly greater in the renal group, as was the rate of recommendation for a biopsy.

"Every woman on dialysis therapy," Castellanos and colleagues conclude, "should be referred for screening mammography, and the physician taking care of these patients should be aware of the slightly increased risk for workup and possibly resultant psychological stress after screening dialysis patients."
 
SOURCE: 

• American Journal of Kidney Diseases, August 2006.