Women with
silicone gel
breast implants responded to a questionnaire that included questions on health status, satisfaction with implants, symptoms of CTD, and physician-diagnosed disease. These women then had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of their breasts to determine the status of the implants with respect to
rupture and extracapsular
silicone.
RESULTS: Women with
breast implant rupture diagnosed by MRI were no more likely to report a diagnosis of selected CTD than those with intact implants or those with implants of indeterminate status. Women with extracapsular
silicone (
silicone gel outside of the fibrous
scar that forms around
breast implants) were more likely to report having
fibromyalgia (FM, p = 0.004) or other CTD, which included
dermatomyositis,
polymyositis, Hashimoto's
thyroiditis, mixed CTD,
pulmonary fibrosis,
eosinophilic fasciitis, and polymyalgia (p = 0.008) than other women in the study. The association with FM remained statistically significant when adjusted for multiple comparisons (7 diagnoses) and implant age, implant location, or implant manufacturer (p < 0.05 in all cases), but became of borderline statistical significance when adjusted for multiple comparisons and self-perceived health status (p = 0.094) or self-perceived
rupture status (p = 0.051). The association with other CTD remained statistically significant when adjusted for multiple comparisons and implant location or implant manufacturer, but became borderline or insignificant when adjusted for multiple comparisons and for implant age (p = 0.051), self-perceived health status (p = 0.434), or self-perceived
rupture status (p = 0.145). Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios of self-reported diagnoses comparing women with and without extracapsular
silicone. The odds ratios were 2.8 (95% CI 1.2 to 6.3) for FM, and 2.6 (95% CI 0.8 to 8.5) for other CTD after adjustment for implant age, implant location, implant manufacturer, implant type, self-perceived health, self-perceived
rupture status, and site of surgery practice.
CONCLUSION: