STUDIES: Breast Implants Impede Heart Problem Discovery

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/
www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/blog.htm

Eur J Echocardiogr. 2006 Dec 5; [Epub ahead of print] Links
Impairment of echocardiographic acoustic window by breast
implants.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_DocSum

* Movahed MR.

Department of Medicine, Section of Cardiology, University of
Arizona Sarver Heart Center, 1501 North Campbell Avenue, Tucson, AZ
85724, USA.

Cosmetic breast implants are increasing in popularity. The
presence of a foreign object such as breast implants overlying the
anterior mediastinal space as a cause of impairment of
echocardiographic acoustic window affecting image quality has not been
described. Here we report three women with significant impairment of
echocardiographic images by breast implants. Clinicians should be
aware of this interference and women should be informed on the
potential limitation in diagnostic echocardiography that may occur
before considering this cosmetic surgery.

PMID: 17157073 [Pub

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=16538430


1: Int J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2006 Jun-Aug;22(3-4):449-55. Epub 2006
Mar 15.Click here to read Links
Impaired myocardial SPECT imaging secondary to silicon- and
saline-containing breast implants.

* Stinis CT,
* Lizotte PE,
* Movahed MR.

Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of
California, Irvine Medical Center, Orange, CA, USA.

Early detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) in women has been
challenging. Women are more likely to present with atypical symptoms,
and non-invasive evaluation for CAD has been less accurate. Myocardial
SPECT imaging is a well-established technique that provides important
physiologic, anatomic, and prognostic information in women.
Attenuation artifacts secondary to breast tissue are a common problem
in women and can lead to decreased specificity of gated SPECT imaging.
Cosmetic breast implants are increasing in popularity. The presence of
a foreign object overlying the anterior wall of the heart in addition
to native breast tissue can significantly increase attenuation
artifacts. There is only one report to date describing attenuation
artifact due to silicon breast implants in comparison to control, and
there are no reports regarding saline breast implants. Here we report
three cases of impaired myocardial SPECT imaging in women with breast
implants: one patient with silicone implants, and two with
saline-containing implants. Clinicians should be aware of this problem
and women should be educated regarding the potential future diagnostic
problems that may occur with breast implants before considering this
cosmetic surgery.

PMID: 16538430 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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