Dr. Robert Whitfield's team uses PCR testing to detect DNA from 150 bacterial and fungal species on breast implant scar capsules. A study of thousands of cases found microbes present in 29% of cases over ten years, suggesting the problem could affect a significant portion of the 2.2 million annual implant recipients.
Now, you know, after thousands of cases, we recently published a paper that is showing the true incidence of bacteria found by PCR testing on scar capsules. So the test I did on that patient was a, think of like using a Q-tip swab and you wipe it around, and then you would culture it by using that swab and wiping it on an agar plate, putting it in incubator, which is basically how the labs did cultures, still do cultures. That is a— for 2024, that's a pretty unsophisticated way to accumulate information. So now we use quantitative PCR analysis looking for DNA fragments of 150 types of bacteria, fungi, and mycobacterium to make sure the best of our ability we're, we're both clarifying how much is there and trying to quantify it as much as possible. Wow. How common would you say breast implant illness is? So about 2.2 million implants are placed annually. And over, it takes probably in my experience, we'll just use 10 years as a benchmark. And in my study, we just published a 29% rate, so we'll just call it 30. That leaves about 6.6 million people who you would think would have that problem.
Hmm.
