The breasts of adult female goats and pigs remain enlarged for sufficient time after weaning to allow survival studies of interstitial thermal therapy (ITT) lesions. The functional anatomy of the goat breast consists of breast lobules whose ducts empty into a labyrinth of increasingly dilated ducts that ultimately empty into one large chamber in the teat. On the other hand, similar to human breasts, the pig breasts are solid mixtures of lobules and ducts that empty into several smaller collecting ducts that terminate in the nipple. ITT lesions were produced using radio frequency energy source in goat and pig breasts and followed for up to 84 days (goats) and 28 days (pigs). The patterns and progression of wound healing were compared for the two species. The acute thermal lesions were formed of a central thermal coagulum surrounded by a red rim of thermal damage. At three days, the full extent of necrosis coincided with the outer boundary of the red thermal damage zone in both species. Wound organization, scar formation and epithelial regeneration originated from the peripheral viable breast tissues. Blood flow resumed in the open lumens of necrotic blood vessels in the central coagulum in both species but was more prominent in the pig. Slough of necrotic tissue was different in the goat compared to the pig because of the presence of large ducts in the goat breast. Epithelial regeneration was more prominent and extensive in the pig. Since the functional and stromal anatomy of the pig breast is similar to that of the human, the pig is a more reasonable model for human breast than the goat.

Date Published: 1 June 2001
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4247, Thermal Treatment of Tissue: Energy Delivery and Assessment, (1 June 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.427870

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4247:
Thermal Treatment of Tissue: Energy Delivery and Assessment
Thomas P. Ryan, Editor(s)