Breast implants make it difficult to identify heart disease

08/01/2017

Specialists from the Princess Grace Hospital Center in Monaco ( Princess Grace Hospital ) argue that breast implants distort the electrocardiogram data, not allowing doctors to correctly assess the electrical activity of the heart.

Violation of the ability of the equipment to read the ECG correctly can lead to an erroneous diagnosis, and as a result, to the wrongly prescribed treatment.

To such conclusions, the researchers came after the experiment with the participation of twenty-eight women with breast implants and twenty participants who did not do plastic surgery. All patients underwent ECG, and their results were evaluated by two doctors. For women from the first group, one expert recorded 38% of incorrect results, and for the second, this indicator reached 57%. In women without implants, electrocardiogram readings were correct.

According to incorrect ECG indicators, women should have been diagnosed with a heart attack and prescribed potent drugs as therapy. In addition, abnormal results could be the reason that a really developing pathology would go unnoticed, and therefore the patient could not receive emergency treatment.

Experts believe that emergency doctors should be aware that breast implants can make it difficult to diagnose heart diseases, and treat such patients more carefully.

Valeria Sokolova, news editor