Study Clears Implants as Cause of Connective Tissue Diseases : Science File / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment.

A large medical study has exonerated silicone breast implants as a cause of connective tissue diseases such as lupus and arthritis. Harvard researchers, reporting today in the New England Journal of Medicine, compared hundreds of nurses who had silicone gel-filled breast implants with nurses who did not and found that the rates of tissue diseases were virtually the same in both groups.

“This study should reassure women with breast implants that they are not at substantially increased risk of connective tissue disease compared to other women,” said Dr. Matthew Liang of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the co-authors of the research report.

If anything, the statistics seem to suggest that the implants might have reduced the risk of such problems. Compiled from Times wire and staff reports.