Interference of breast implants with echocardiographic image acquisition and interpretation

Abstract

Echocardiography is one of the most important diagnostic testing in cardiology. The presence of a breast implant overlying heart can cause significant impairment of the echocardiographic acoustic window. Breast implants are increasing in popularity in the USA and the Federal Drug and Food Administration (FDA) just approved silicone implants again. In this review, the impact of silicone breast implant on the echocardiographic image acquisition and interpretation is discussed. © 2007 Movahed; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.