EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF LYMPHEDEMA USING MULTIPLE FREQUENCY BIOIMPEDANCE

Abstract

Multiple frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MFBIA) has previously been shown toprovide accurate relative measures of lymphedema in the upper limb of patients (1). This paperreports the results of a three year prospective study to evaluate the efficacy of MFBIA to predictthe early onset of lymphedema in patients following treatment for breast cancer.Bioelectrical impedance measurements and circumferential measurements of each upperlimb were recorded in healthy control subjects (n=60) to determine the normal range of the ratio(dominant/non-dominant) of extracellular and total limb volumes respectively. Patientsundergoing surgery for the treatment of breast cancer were recruited as the study group; MFBIAand circumferential measurements were recorded pre-surgery, one month post-surgery and thenat two month intervals for 24 months.One hundred and two patients were recruited into the study. Twenty patients developedlymphedema in the 24 months follow up period of this study. In each of these 20 cases MFBIApredicted the onset of the condition up to 10 months before the condition could be clinicallydiagnosed. Estimates of the sensitivity and specificity were both approximately 100%. At the timeof detection by MFBIA, only one of the patients returned a positive test result from the total limbvolumes determined from the circumferential measures. These results confirmed the suitability ofthe MFBIA technique as a reliable diagnostic procedure for the early detection of lymphedema.