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Johnson, Kristi C.

Center for Clinical and Translational Science

2014

M.S.

Treatment for breast cancer has increased patient survivorship exponentially over the past few decades. With increased survivorship, more women are living with the longstanding effects of breast cancer treatment, such as Lymphedema. Lymphedema is a chronic swelling condition that is a result of damage or injury to the lymphatic system, including lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels.
Patients, health care providers, and third party payers depend on practical, efficient, and useful tests that can be performed in a clinical setting in order to accurately measure and diagnose lymphedema. Accurate measures are also necessary to monitor progression or regression of the disease as well as treatment effects. Chapter 1 reviews the clinical measures of lymphedema that are currently utilized. Chapter 2 provides the results from a research study that compares current clinical measures to ultrasound imaging. Current clinical measures do not include objective measures that assess lymphedetamous tissue. Ultrasound imaging, as a tool to quantify subcutaneous tissues, holdspromise to be a safe, mobile, and effective method to measure lymphedema tissue texture.