• Leesuk Kim, Jae Yong Jeon, In Young Sung, Soon Yong Jeong, Jung Hwa Do, and Hwa Jung Kim.
• Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 138-736, Korea.
• Ann Rehabil Med. 2011 Oct 1; 35 (5): 687-93.

ObjectiveTo investigate the usefulness of bioimpedance measurement for predicting the treatment outcome in breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL) patients.MethodUnilateral BCRL patients who received complex decongestive therapy (CDT) for 2 weeks (5 days per week) were enrolled in this study. We measured the ratio of extracellular fluid (ECF) volume by using bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS), and single frequency bioimpedance analysis (SFBIA) at a 5 kHz frequency before treatment. Arm circumferences were measured at 10 cm above and below the elbow before and after treatment. We also investigated whether there is correlation between ECF ratio and SFBIA ratio with the change of arm circumference after CDT.ResultsA total of 73 patients were enrolled in this study. The higher ECF ratio was significantly correlated with higher reduction of arm circumference at both above and below the elbow after treatment, but the higher SFBIA ratio was correlated only with the higher reduction of arm circumference below the elbow.ConclusionThese results show that ECF volume measurements and SFBIA before treatment are useful tools for predicting the outcome of patients with lymphedema. We concluded that ECF volume measure can be used as a screening tool for predicting treatment outcome of BCRL patients.

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