Silicone Implants Yield Platinum
 
Heavy Metal Was Also Found In Bone Marrow
 
Aug 26, 2004 8:22 am US/Pacific
WASHINGTON (AP) Researchers have found high concentrations of platinum
in women who got silicone breast implants and in the children they bore
and breast-fed afterward. 
 
The type of platinum found in the women's blood and urine was different
than the traces of regular platinum not uncommon in people's bodies. It
was a highly reactive platinum, used to help turn silicon oil into the
honey-like gel that lends a more natural feel to a breast implant. 
 
Concentrations were up to three times higher than in women who didn't
have breast implants, according to findings by S.V.M. Maharaj, a chemist
at American University. Maharaj was scheduled present the findings
Thursday to the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia. 
 
Ernest Lykissa, a forensic and clinical toxicologist who co-authored the
paper, said the study's sample size was small. But Lykissa said it
fairly represented hundreds of women with implants he's studied over the
years. 
 
Women who had implants the longest recorded the highest platinum
concentrations. The heavy metal was also found in bone marrow, where
blood cells are made. 
 
Distinct from platinum released by catalytic converters in cars,
platinum in implants is treated with nitric and hydrochloric acids and
becomes very reactive, Lykissa said. The heavy metal readily binds in
the human body, especially to nerve endings, short-circuiting
communication with the brain. 
 
"You see green, but you perceive a full moon," he said. "All of a
sudden, your brain system is not working right." 
 
Some women developed nervous tics, had faulty perception, and impaired
hearing and eyesight, he said. 
 
Children born to women with implants had problems with eyesight and
hearing, too, but those nervous system disorders may have been caused by
something else, he cautioned. 
 
The Food and Drug Administration in January stunned plastic surgeons
when, contradicting the advice of its expert panel, it rejected Inamed's
bid to reintroduce silicone breast implants. After safety concerns rose,
the FDA banned such implants in 1992 for most patients. 
 
In January, the drug regulatory agency asked Inamed for more details
about what happens when silicone seeps from the implant. 
 
Dan Cohen, a spokesman for Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Inamed, said the
company would speak in detail about its formal reply, submitted to the
FDA earlier this month. 
 
But at the FDA's October 2003 advisory board meeting, the company
briefly discussed platinum dispersion and concentration in implant
patients. The company has tracked those patients for three years. 
 
"It was not an issue that anyone dwelled on — either our presentation or
the panel," Cohen said. 
 
For its part, the FDA in 2002 surveyed scientific literature that
indicated platinum leaks from implants into surrounding breast tissue.
Researchers said they didn't find anything suggesting women had allergic
responses to leached platinum. 
 
Paul H. Wooley, director of research for orthopedic surgery at Wayne
State University, said it's been suspected for at least a decade that
heavy metals used in manufacturing might cause problems for women who
receive implants. 
 
"I'm not sure these questions have been answered because, in general,
they haven't been asked," Wooley said. "For political reasons, working
on breast-implant patients has been somewhat difficult to do."
 

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