The American journal of medicine
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Breast implants interfere with myocardial perfusion imaging (single photon emission computed tomography) and echocardiographic windows, leading to increased false-positive results. To validate this concept, we hypothesized that patients with breast implants should have higher positive cardiac testing and coronary angiogram with lower percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) rates compared with women without a breast implant. ⋯ Women with breast implants had higher adjusted positive cardiac functional studies, and a higher adjusted rate of coronary angiography but lower rates of PCI, consistent with our hypothesis that breast implant interference can increase abnormal cardiac testing, leading to an increase in the utilization of coronary angiography.