Diagnosis
The diagnosis can be easily made by a doctor. A questioning of the exact symptoms with a short physical examination by palpation of the breast and the lymph nodes gives the decisive indications for the suspected diagnosis of mastitis puerperalis. Subsequently, the breast can be checked in a short ultrasound examination.
Here the inflamed tissue can be easily recognized and in many cases an encapsulated abscess can already be detected by ultrasound. If the symptoms do not exactly match the mastitis puerperalis, further examinations must be carried out to exclude possible differential diagnoses. In rare cases, a tumor of the breast may also be present. A so-called “inflammatory mammary carcinoma” can cause similar symptoms with redness and swelling, but is much less common than mastitis puerperalis. This may also be of interest to you:
- Detect breast cancer
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Associated symptoms
The main symptoms of mastitis puerperalis consist of the five signs of inflammation. These include redness, swelling, overheating, pain, but also the limited function of the mammary gland. By palpating the breast, if it is not too painful, a small, hardened abscess can still be palpated.
There is often a milk congestion in the entire breast, so that the remaining, non-inflamed tissue is also hardened. The inflammation often spreads through the lymphatic system and spreads throughout the body. Primarily, there are swelling lymph nodes under the armpit, which are enlarged and painful to touch.
Subsequently, a feeling of illness with weakness, fever, chills, aching limbs and reduced general condition can occur throughout the body. Fever is a very unspecific symptom of the disease, which indicates an infection in the body.Fever develops as a reaction of the body to pathogens that are to be fought with the increased temperature. At the site of inflammation, the body releases messenger substances that stimulate the body to raise the temperature.
A certain elevated body temperature indicates an active healing process of the body, but temperatures above 40 degrees should not be exceeded as they can damage the body. Fever is often accompanied by a feeling of weakness, which tells the body that it needs rest to fight the infection. The fever indicates that mastitis puerperalis is not just a small local inflammation of the chest, but a disease of the entire body.
If the temperature rises sharply with further severe symptoms of the disease, a severe form of mastitis may also be present, in which the inflammation does not encapsulate itself but spreads diffusely throughout the body. In these cases, a doctor must be consulted, who will initiate antibiotic therapy if necessary.
- Causes for fever
- How can you measure fever?
- How can fever be reduced?
Chills are a sign of cold.
At the acute onset of the disease, chills indicate that the body is increasing its own body temperature and needs warmth, which is why the surroundings appear cold. Typically, the onset of fever is marked by sensitivity to cold surfaces, metal and outside air, as well as aching limbs, exhaustion and chills. After a few hours to days of fever, the chills subside a little when the fever temperature is reached. During the course of the day, the fever may fluctuate, so that phases of chills may occur several times a day.
