Breast anatomy and medical imaging for breast - Term Paper Example

Anatomy of the Breast and Medical Imaging Breast is basically made up of glandular and fatty tissue that function to produce milk. It is locatedbetween the second and sixth ribs over the pectoralis major. It is anchored onto the muscle with the help of the deep fascia and ligaments, the pectoralis fascia. The fascia is not taught and thus allows for natural motion of the breast. The ligaments run through the breast tissue and the deep fascia. Inferomedially, the breast overlies the rectus abdominis.

The nipple overlies the inframmmary line, at the level of the 4th rib. It is lateral to the mid clavicular line (Gabriel, 2011). Muscles underlying the breast include serratus anterior, rectus abdominis fascia and external oblique. Blood supply to the muscles perforates through the parenchyma of the breast while supply arterial blood to the breast (Gabriel, 2011). The blood supply of the breast is mainly derived from the perforators of the internal mammary artery. Other sources of blood supply are arteries to the serratus anterior muscle, the thoracoacromial artery and the lateral thoracic artery.

The blood supply is rich and thus provides scope for reduction procedures in which the flaps need to be viable (Gabriel, 2011). Sensory innervation to the breast is mainly dermatomal and is derived from the anteromedial and anterolateral branches of the thoracic intercostal nerves T3-T5. Some innervation from the supraclavicular nerves derived from the cervical plexua also occurs towards the lateral and upper portions of the breast. Nipple is innervated by the lateral cutaneous branch of T4 (Gabriel, 2011).

Breast, like any other tissue in the body can be afflicted by pathology and disease, the worst and medically challenging being breast cancer. Infact, breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women in several parts of the world. Medical imaging has a major role to play in the detection and evaluation of breast cancer and other related pathological problems. The most widely used medical imaging technique is mammography. This is used both for screening and diagnosis of breast tumors.

Mammography is an X-ray imaging technique that is specialised and helps in creating images of the breast that appear in detail. The technique employs low doses of X-rays for the purpose.. The contrast and resolution are high and help to demonstrate