Primary angiosarcoma of the breast associated Kasabach-Merritt syndrome during pregnancy

Primary angiosarcoma of the breast is a rare aggressive tumour of unknown etiology. A frequent clinical presentation is a painful palpable smooth mass or diffuse enlargement of the breast without a palpable mass but with purple discolouration of the overlying skin with apparent bruising. An uncommon clinical presentation of an angiosarcoma is spontaneous bleeding due to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) by consumption coagulopathy, known as the Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. Imaging characteristics of a breast angiosarcoma are limited to a few radiological reports. We report a case of a young pregnant woman with a bleeding angiosarcoma of the breast and associated Kasabach-Merritt syndrome and describe the sonographic and MRI findings. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.