Open AccessThe Necessity of Upper Extremity Neurologic Examination while Evaluating Breast Pain
Author(s) -
Aslı Akın Belli,
Funda Dinç Elibol,
Arsal Acarbaş,
Önder Özcan,
Özcan Dere,
Cenk Yazkan,
Cenk Elibol,
Kürşad Tosun,
Okay Nazlı
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
breast care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.767
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1661-3805
pISSN - 1661-3791
DOI - 10.1159/000505364
Subject(s) - medicine , dysesthesia , breast pain , weakness , magnetic resonance imaging , logistic regression , incidence (geometry) , cervical radiculopathy , surgery , cervical vertebrae , radiology , cervical spine , breast cancer , physics , cancer , optics
Breast pain is one of the most frequent complaints and occurs in 45–69% of all women. Cervical disc herniation is a common cause of cervical radiculopathy with an incidence rate of 18.6 per 100,000, and it should be considered as a cause of breast pain. Objective: To identify the extent to which upper extremity neurologic findings and cervical root disorders accompany breast pain. Methods: We prospectively collected clinical features of patients with breast pain. An upper extremity neurologic examination was performed in patients and controls. Patients who had neurologic findings underwent cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify cervical root disorders. Results: Out of the 554 participants, 233 had breast pain, and 321 were controls. Women with breast pain had more numbness (116 [49.8%] vs. 104 [32.4%], p 0.05). The number of women with one neurologic finding was significantly greater in the group with breast pain (119 [51.1%] vs. 111 [34.6%], p < 0.001). Ninety (16.2%) patients underwent a cervical vertebra MRI, which showed that 86 (95.6%) patients had cervical root disorders including 21 (23.3%) cases of bulging, 9 (10%) of annular tear, and 56 (62.2%) of central disc protrusion; 4 (4.4%) patients had normal findings. The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age was the only significant predictor of neurologic findings in patients with breast pain (p < 0.05, OR: 1.02, CI: 1.002–1.053). Conclusions: Cervical root disorders should be considered as a cause of extramammary breast pain.