Rehabilitation Medicine Department, Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1604, USA.
Lymphology. 2010 Jun;43(2):85-94.
Lymphedema is a common side effect of breast cancer treatment and is associated with increased upper extremity volume, functional impairment, and pain. While there is no cure for lymphedema, physical therapy treatment can often alleviate symptoms. To measure the efficacy of treatment, accurate assessment of the limbs is important. Current methods of assessment are complex (water displacement), marginally accurate (circumferential measurements), or expensive (opto-electrical systems). A new method for estimating tissue fluid is bioelectrical spectroscopy (BIS). This method measures impedance to small currents applied to the body and is easily performed. Acceptance of BIS devices for assessment of limb fluid will be dependent on the establishment of sufficient reliability and validity, and the objective of this study was to evaluate reliability and validity of this device compared to perometry. Both upper limbs of ten subjects previously treated for breast cancer were measured using BIS and perometry. We found that inter-rater reliability (r = 0.987) and intrarater reliability (r = 0.993) were acceptably high for the BIS unit and concurrent validity was r = -0.904, when compared to perometry. These results confirm that BIS can produce valid and reliable data related to the assessment of upper limbs affected by lymphedema.
淋巴水肿是乳腺癌治疗的常见副作用，与上肢体积增加、功能障碍和疼痛有关。虽然淋巴水肿无法治愈，但物理治疗通常可以缓解症状。为了衡量治疗效果，准确评估四肢很重要。目前的评估方法复杂（水置换法）、准确性有限（周径测量）或昂贵（光电系统）。一种新的组织液估计方法是生物电阻抗光谱（BIS）。该方法测量施加到身体上的小电流的阻抗，易于操作。BIS 设备用于评估肢体液体的接受程度将取决于充分的可靠性和有效性的确立，本研究的目的是评估该设备与体积描记法相比的可靠性和有效性。十名先前接受过乳腺癌治疗的受试者的上肢均使用 BIS 和体积描记法进行了测量。我们发现 BIS 单元的组内信度（r = 0.987）和组内信度（r = 0.993）非常高，与体积描记法相比，同期效度为 r = -0.904。这些结果证实 BIS 可以产生与评估受淋巴水肿影响的上肢相关的有效且可靠的数据。
