VISUALIZATION OF SILICONE GEL IN HUMAN BREAST-TISSUE USING NEW INFRARED IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY

Between 1 and 2 million women in the United States have silicone breas t implants. Complications include capsular contracture and calcificati on and possibly connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma and rhe umatoid arthritis, a subject of some controversy(1-7). In order to acc urately assess the role of silicone in any histopathologic change, it is necessary to confirm its presence and to identify other foreign mat erials in the capsular tissue. Although light microscopy is used to vi sualize regions of tissue containing foreign inclusions, their chemica l identity can only be determined using analytical techniques such as infrared or Raman microscopy. However, these conventional microprobe t echniques record spectra only at single points and require an a priori knowledge of the locations of the inclusion to be probed. To signific antly extend the capabilities of both infrared spectroscopy and optica l microscopy, we have developed a new infrared imaging system that com pletely integrates these two methods. In this manuscript we highlight the ability of the technique to screen rapidly and to determine accura tely the presence, size and chemical composition of silicone gel inclu sions in human breast tissue.