Abstract
Patients with silicone breast implants have been reported to have a variety of autoantibodies including antinuclear antibodies1, abnormal western blots 2,3, antibodies to silicone surface associated antigens4 and anticollagen antibodies5. Reports of the prevalence of antinuclear antibodies have ranged from 20% to as high as 58%,6,7,8,9. We hypothesized that this wide range may be due to practice site and geographic differences or small sample size and we will therefore report data on over 3000 symptomatic women. Recently Bridges reported a high prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in patients with fibromyalgia using a Hep2 technique 10. We hypothesized the increased prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in symptomatic women with breast implants could not be explained by an increased prevalence of fibromyalgia. Clinicians have found a high prevalence of sicca symptoms in patients with silicone breast implants 10. We hypothesized that these sicca symptoms would not be associated with classic autoantibodies of antiRo and antiLa.
Published Version
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