Abstract
Expander-based breast reconstruction is a popular form of post-mastectomy reconstruction and involves the temporary subcutaneous implantation of breast tissue expanders that require periodic, incremental inflation with sterile saline by injection until the desired amount of tissue is developed. One type of tissue expander injection port system currently on the market is made of titanium and rare-earth magnets that enhance injection accuracy. These highly dense metallic materials, however, can cause attenuation artefacts on multiple gated acquisition cardiac studies. In this report, we present the cases of two breast cancer patients with artefacts on multiple gated acquisition scans, characteristic of these tissue breast expanders.
Highlights
Expander-based breast reconstruction is a popular form of post-mastectomy reconstruction and involves the temporary subcutaneous implantation of breast tissue expanders that require periodic, incremental inflation with sterile saline by injection until the desired amount of tissue is developed
A chest radiograph revealed a dense ring-like object in the region of the left breast (Figure 2). 1 month earlier, the patient had a skin-sparing left mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. This was achieved by the placement of a breast tissue expander that was inserted beneath the left pectoralis major muscle (Allergan style 133SV-14-T anatomic saline tissue expander of 375 ml nominal volume)
The dense ring-like object seen on chest X-ray was a MAGNA-SITEÒ (Allergan, Santa Barbara, CA) integrated injection port in the tissue expander, which contains a puncture-proof titanium needle guard and a rare-earth permanent magnet and which is used in conjunction with the MAGNA-FINDERÒ external locating device for an accurate injection system
Summary
Expander-based breast reconstruction is a popular form of post-mastectomy reconstruction and involves the temporary subcutaneous implantation of breast tissue expanders that require periodic, incremental inflation with sterile saline by injection until the desired amount of tissue is developed. The left anterior oblique (LAO) view images (Figure 1a,b) revealed a small round photopenic defect overlying the septum, which did not change location on the dynamic images.
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