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Abstract #4960

Noninvasive MR Lymphangiography for assessing lymph fluid congestion in human lymphedema

Megan Aumann1, Shannon L Taylor2, Vanessa N Crain3, Maria E Garza1,3, Allison Scott3, Miracle Darrington3, Michael D Pridmore4, Alaina J Brown5, Yu Luo4, Paula M. C. Donahue6, and Rachelle L Crescenzi3
1Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 2Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 3Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 4Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 5Gynecologic Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, 6Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Other Musculoskeletal, biomarkers

Motivation: Lymphedema is a chronic progressive disease with no curative therapies. MR lymphangiography has potential to detect lymphatic congestion and characterize fundamental properties of lymphatic fluid flow noninvasively to inform therapeutic strategies.

Goal(s): Utilize non-invasive MR lymphangiography (MRL) to assess lymphatic fluid congestion quantitatively in lower-extremity lymphedema.

Approach: We assessed adults with lower-extremity lymphedema, gynecologic (GYN) cancer, and healthy participants using noninvasive 3.0T MRL.

Results: Patients with lymphedema show significantly elevated vessel/tissue signal compared to those with GYN-cancer and healthy controls, which increases with disease severity. Velocity-suppressed DANTE-prepared MRL signal is less suppressed in patients with lymphedema, indicating slower flow velocity.

Impact: Noninvasive MR lymphangiography can be applied in clinically-feasible scan time, and may provide useful imaging biomarkers in assessing severity of edema in lymphedema and lymphatic functioning, which could be used to more deeply characterize lymphedema development and novel therapies.

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Keywords