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Abstract #2821

Multi-nuclear MRI of tissue sodium provides novel measure of treatment response to physical therapy in women with lipedema

Paula Donahue1, Rachelle Crescenzi2,3,4, Kalen Petersen5, Maria Garza6, Niral J Patel7, Chelsea A Lee7, Sheau-Chiann Chen8, and Manus J Donahue6,9
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 2Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 3Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 4Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 5Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, United States, 6Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 7Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 8Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 9Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States

Synopsis

The overall goal of this work is to apply multi-nuclear sodium MRI to evaluate the therapeutic effect of physical therapy in women with lipedema. Lipedema is a fat disorder affecting approximately 11% of women and since it is largely refractory to diet and exercise, objective measures of condition severity and treatment response are required. We applied sodium MRI to evaluate whether abnormal tissue sodium accumulation in the legs, a previously established lipedema biomarker, reduced following physical therapy in persons with lipedema. Results show reduction of skin and subcutaneous sodium, which corresponds with reduced pain and increased function.

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