Imaging findings in Mondor's disease.

Mondor's disease, or acute thrombophlebitis of superficial veins of the breast, occurs rarely, and little information is available in the medical literature on imaging findings in this disease. We present the case of a 59-year-old woman who underwent evaluation of a palpable, painful cord in her left breast associated with discoloration of the overlying skin. Mammography revealed a 10-cm-long linear density in her left breast. Gray-scale sonography showed a noncompressible, hypoechoic, undulating tubular structure in the subcutaneous fat. Color Doppler imaging revealed no flow signal in this structure, although we observed arterial flow signals adjacent to it. We diagnosed Mondor's disease and treated the patient symptomatically; 6-week follow-up examinations demonstrated resolution of the venous thrombosis. The use of sonography, particularly color Doppler imaging, can aid in diagnosing Mondor's disease and in monitoring its resolution. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 31:103-107, 2003