Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Marmara University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
Lymphology. 2019;52(1):1-10.
Use of ultrasound as an assessment technique for lymphedema has been increasing with measurement of subcutaneous tissue thickness used for both assessment and treatment outcome. Reliability of ultrasound examination of the thickness of the skin and subcutaneous tissue have been studied. However, interlimb differences of ultrasonographic subcutaneous tissue thickness have not been explored. This study aimed to establish diagnostic accuracy of interlimb differences of ultrasonographic subcutaneous tissue thickness measurements in breast cancer-related arm lymphedema. We compared the truncated cone method by using circumference measurements and interlimb differences of ultrasonographic subcutaneous tissue thickness measurements to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of interlimb differences of ultrasonographic subcutaneous tissue thickness measurements. Sensitivity, specificity, receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and area under the curve (AUC) were used. Analysis of ROC curves yielded area under the curve (AUC) of 0.804 (p=0.002). ROC analysis identified 0.17cm as the cut-point for differentiating between tissue with and without lymphedema resulting in a sensitivity of 79.3% and specificity of 69.2%.
超声检查作为一种评估淋巴水肿的技术，其应用正在不断增加，包括使用皮下组织厚度测量来评估和预测治疗效果。超声检查皮肤和皮下组织厚度的可靠性已经得到了研究。然而，肢体间超声皮下组织厚度的差异尚未得到探索。本研究旨在建立超声测量肢体间皮下组织厚度差异在乳腺癌相关上肢淋巴水肿中的诊断准确性。我们比较了使用周径测量和肢体间超声皮下组织厚度差异测量的截断锥法，以评估肢体间超声皮下组织厚度差异测量的诊断准确性。使用敏感性、特异性、受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线和曲线下面积（AUC）进行分析。ROC 曲线分析得到曲线下面积（AUC）为 0.804（p=0.002）。ROC 分析确定 0.17cm 为区分有无淋巴水肿的分界点，其敏感性为 79.3%，特异性为 69.2%。
