On 5/1/02 12:41 AM, "Automatic digest processor"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I deliberately traveled to Chicago to attend one of Dr. Hartmann's
> presentations to ask him about this. He had changed his semantics to
> something like "We are unable to identify the presence of milk sinuses on
> ultrasound."

This research has been undertaken by Donna Ramsay - just wanted to let you
know that she has studied 17 women so far using ultrasound to examine the
milk ejection reflex. She has never been able to identify any ballooning of
the ducts similar to that  described as "milk sinuses"  - the ducts have a
uniform diameter that does not change over time (from day to day) except of
course during MER. She has also noted that branching occurs within a minimum
radius of 16 millimetres from the nipple (about I/2 inch).
Jean I took a lot of convincing too until I saw it with my own eyes and I
still kept on asking "But what can I feel beneath my fingers then?" I have
come to the conclusion that it is probably venous congestion and not milk
sinuses - I think some women have veins very close to the skin on the areola
and this gives the impression of being a milk sinus.
For those interested (although perhaps getting a little late now) I will be
speaking about Donna's research and other research from the Hartmann Lab in
a workshop (and my research on mastitis!) at the Centre for Breastfeeding's
Conference  in Orlando (16th-20th Jan). Hope to see some of you there! (My
first time in the USA)

Regards
Cathy Fetherston
Perth Western Australia

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html