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Biomedical subjects

A H Appelbaum

Publications and source records attributed to A H Appelbaum.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The diagnostic accuracy of mammography in the evaluation of male breast disease.

BACKGROUND: The role of mammography in the evaluation of male patients presenting with breast disease is controversial. This controversy is a function of the lack of specific data concerning the diagnostic accuracy of mammography when used in this clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to define the diagnostic accuracy of mammography in the evaluation of male breast disease. METHODS: One hundred and four prebiopsy mammograms from 100 patients with tissue diagnoses were read blindly by two independent radiologists, and placed into one of five predetermined categories: definitely malignant, possibly malignant, gynecomastia, benign mass, and normal. Radiologic/pathologic correlation was performed and the sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp), positive (Ppv) and negative predictive value (Npv), and accuracy (Ac) for each of the mammographic diagnostic category determined. RESULTS: The pathologic diagnoses were 12 cancers, including 1 patient with bilateral breast cancer, 70 cases of gynecomastia, 16 benign masses, and 6 normals. The accuracy data for the mammographic diagnostic categories are as follows: malignant (combined definitely and possibly malignant), Sn 92%, Sp 90%, Ppv 55%, Npv 99%, Ac 90%; and overall benignity (combined gynecomastia, benign mass, and normal), Sn 90%, Sp 92%, Ppv 99%, Npv 55%, Ac 90%. Six cancers (50%) coexisted with gynecomastia. CONCLUSIONS: Mammography can accurately distinguish between malignant and benign male breast disease. Although not a replacement for clinical examination, its routine use could substantially reduce the need for biopsy in patients whose mammograms and clinical examination suggest benign disease.

Breast Neoplasms, Male↗
PubMed1996

Why traumatized borderline patients relapse.

To be freed of longstanding painful symptoms or to become capable of functioning effectively has unconscious and sometimes conscious negative connotations for patients severely traumatized by childhood sexual abuse. These include rising expectations felt as coming both from within and without; disappointment that life can never make up for what has happened; loss of a justification for receiving care; fear that getting well invalidates the original trauma. Giving up illness may mean renouncing revenge and denying the seriousness of the childhood misery. To the extent that the torment of flashbacks and nightmares represents a continuation of the only family relationships the patient has known, losing these symptoms can feel as if being left entirely alone. The destructive impact of embittered and paranoid reactions unleashed by the experience of change for the better can be mitigated by the therapist's recognition of, and the focus upon, the negative meanings of progress toward health.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Psychotherapeutic routes to structural change.

The changes in psychic structure attributed to the effects of interpretation when they transpire during psychoanalysis occur spontaneously in the course of normal development. The parental behaviors associated with the changing structure of the normally developing personality are similar to various specific and nonspecific features called "supportive" in psychotherapy. These features include interventions that promote a "learning" state by optimizing anxiety, foster a sense of self and of agency, encourage mature relationships, and strengthen adaptive defenses.

Anxiety↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mammographic appearances of male breast disease.

Various male breast diseases have characteristic mammographic appearances that can be correlated with their pathologic diagnoses. Male breast cancer is usually subareolar and eccentric to the nipple. Margins of the lesions are more frequently well defined, and calcifications are rarer and coarser than those occurring in female breast cancer. Gynecomastia usually appears as a fan-shaped density emanating from the nipple, gradually blending into surrounding fat. It may have prominent extensions into surrounding fat and, in some cases, an appearance similar to that of a heterogeneously dense female breast. Although there are characteristic mammographic features that allow breast cancer in men to be recognized, there is substantial overlap between these features and the mammographic appearance of benign nodular lesions. The mammographic appearance of gynecomastia is not similar to that of male breast cancer, but in rare cases, it can mask malignancy. Gynecomastia can be mimicked by chronic inflammation. All mammographically lucent lesions of the male breast appear to be benign, similar to such lesions in the female breast.

Adipose Tissue↗