Knowledge Bank

Lymphedema, a common complication due to breast cancer treatment, is presented as swelling of a limb. This project studies the electrical property of the limb tissue of breast cancer survivors in order to help diagnose lymphedema. Electrical impedance under a range of frequencies is measured. An electrical equivalent circuit is simulated to model the swelling tissue. The impedance data are analyzed using Matlab to calculate electrical parameters of the modeling circuits. Con rmed lymphedema patients are compared to normal volunteers to identify electrical parameters that may be correlated with development of lymphedema. Change of the correlated electrical parameters of patients in the simulated model helps to provide physiological information on lymphedema which is important in clinical treatment. The bioimpedance Wessel curves of long term lymphedema patients seem to deviate from Cole model. More complicated models that have more nonlinearity with frequency are required to further explain the deviation.