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Upper extremity bioimpedance before and after treadmill testing in women post breast cancer treatment

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Abstract

Research on the effect of cardiorespiratory (CR) exercise on upper extremity (UE) limb volume is limited in women with breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). The aim of this study was to compare changes in UE volume immediately following a symptom-limited CR treadmill test in women with and without BCRL. As part of a cross-sectional study, 133 women post unilateral BC treatment completed symptom-limited treadmill testing. Bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) was used to measure UE resistance before and immediately following treadmill testing. Resistance ratios >1 (unaffected side/affected side) indicate greater volume in the affected limb. T-tests and repeated measures ANOVA were performed to evaluate differences between and within groups. Mean age was 56.2 years (SD 9.4); BMI was 26.13 kg m−2 (SD 5.04). For women with previously diagnosed BCRL (n = 63), the resistance ratio was 1.116 (SD 0.160) pre-treadmill and 1.108 (SD 0.155) post-treadmill. For women without BCRL (n = 70), the resistance ratio was 0.990 (SD 0.041) pre-treadmill and 1.001 (SD 0.044) post-treadmill. Resistance ratios for women with BCRL were higher than those for women without BCRL at both time points (main effect of group: p < 0.001). No main effects were found for time (p = 0.695). A statistically significant effect was found for the time-by-group interaction (p = 0.002). 78 % of the women with BCRL wore a compression garment during testing. Following testing, the women with BCRL demonstrated a non-statistically significant decrease in the resistance ratio, suggesting an immediate decrease in interlimb volume difference. The women without BCRL demonstrated an increase in the resistance ratio.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH 1R21 NR0101282U) and by NIH/NCRR UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1 RR024131. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Smoot is partially supported by the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) K12, Grant Number K12HD052163 NICHD/NIH, and by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Number KL2TR000143.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, Graduate Program in Physical Therapy, University of California, San Francisco State University, Box 0736, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Betty Smoot & Sarah Zerzan

  2. Clinical Research Center, University of Miami, 1120 NW 14th St. Miami, Miami, FL, 33136, USA

    Joanne Krasnoff

  3. THETA Collaborative, University of Toronto, University of Toronto, 144 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3M2, Canada

    Josephine Wong

  4. Department of Nursing and Health Science, California State University East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd, Hayward, CA, 94542, USA

    Maria Cho

  5. Professor Emeritus, Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California San Francisco, 2 Koret Way, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Marylin Dodd

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  1. Betty Smoot
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  2. Sarah Zerzan
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  3. Joanne Krasnoff
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  4. Josephine Wong
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  5. Maria Cho
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Correspondence to Betty Smoot.

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Smoot, B., Zerzan, S., Krasnoff, J. et al. Upper extremity bioimpedance before and after treadmill testing in women post breast cancer treatment. Breast Cancer Res Treat 148, 445–453 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-3171-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-3171-8

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