To diagnose a breast condition,
your healthcare provider will take your complete health history. Your provider may
also:

• Do a complete physical exam
  to:

  • Locate any lump and
    feel its features, such as texture, size, and relationship to the skin and
    chest muscles

  • Look for changes in the
    nipples or the skin of the breast

  • Check lymph nodes under
    the arm and above the collarbones

• Request imaging tests,
  including:

  • Diagnostic mammography
    to look for masses and calcifications

  • Breast ultrasound to
    further evaluate information from the physical exam or mammography

  • MRI of the breast

• Request a lab microscopic
  exam of nipple discharge if there is nipple discharge other than breastmilk

• Request a ductogram X-ray or
  MRI ductogram of the nipples if there is nipple discharge other than
  breastmilk

• Consider a hormonal
  evaluation if the nipple discharge is milky

• Request a biopsy of tissue
  removed from the suspicious area

Image-guided biopsies. Those aided
by ultrasound or other imaging techniques, including:

• Fine needle aspiration
  (FNA). A very fine or thin needle is guided into the suspicious area. A small
  sample of the tissue is removed.

• Core needle biopsy. A larger
  needle is guided into the lump to remove a small core (cylinder) of tissue.

Surgical biopsy. A surgical
procedure is used to remove all or part of a lump.