Robert Whitfield MDAmerica's Breast Implant Illness Expert™

The Impact of Biofilm on Implant Illness: Key Insights

13 Feb 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:12

A short spoken segment from Robert Whitfield MD describing use of PCR testing (vs antigen tests) to detect DNA fragments of pathogens in patients with suspected breast implant illness. He reports working with Microgen Dx on over 900 consecutive samples (series dating to February 2019), finding that about one-third contained biofilm-producing organisms. He explains biofilm’s role in protecting microbes from immune clearance and in activating the immune system, increasing symptoms attributed to breast implant illness; he also notes that his patients come from a wide geographic area.

Chapters

And I was like, there's no way this is possible. So I got frustrated and I said, okay, we're going to start looking at PCR testing. So for the audience during the pandemic, that antigen testing, the PCR testing. PCR testing looks for DNA fragments of different, you know, pathogens, bacteria, fungi, mycobacteria. So I got in touch with a lab, Microgen dx, and now they've done all of my samples consecutively. February of 2019, we have a series that's being published of over 900 consecutive samples where about a third of them have a bio. But it readily produces biofilm. And so for everybody listening, biofilm makes it so your body can't attack it in and kill it. You have a foreign body, you have something that readily produces biofilm. It attaches and it switches on your immune system. Increases the symptomology of breast implant illness. So in my patient population, the predominant organism, the bacteria, is not staph, it's this cutie bacteria. Now, my. Everybody listening. My patient population is not in Austin. Predominantly. I have patients come from all over the United States and all over the world. So I just operated before I came here on somebody from Singapore.