Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function
Current diagnostic methods for evaluating the functionality of the lymphatic vascular system usually do not provide quantitative data and suffer from many limitations including high costs, complexity, and the need to perform them in hospital settings. In this work, we present a quantitative, simple...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Diagnostics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/10/1873 |
| _version_ | 1797514860807847936 |
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| author | Anna Polomska Epameinondas Gousopoulos Daniel Fehr Andreas Bachmann Mathias Bonmarin Michael Detmar Nicole Lindenblatt |
| author_facet | Anna Polomska Epameinondas Gousopoulos Daniel Fehr Andreas Bachmann Mathias Bonmarin Michael Detmar Nicole Lindenblatt |
| author_sort | Anna Polomska |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current diagnostic methods for evaluating the functionality of the lymphatic vascular system usually do not provide quantitative data and suffer from many limitations including high costs, complexity, and the need to perform them in hospital settings. In this work, we present a quantitative, simple outpatient technology named LymphMonitor to quantitatively assess lymphatic function. This method is based on the painless injection of the lymphatic-specific near-infrared fluorescent tracer indocyanine green complexed with human serum albumin, using MicronJet600<sup>TM</sup> microneedles, and monitoring the disappearance of the fluorescence signal at the injection site over time using a portable detection device named LymphMeter. This technology was investigated in 10 patients with unilateral leg or arm lymphedema. After injection of a tracer solution into each limb, the signal was measured over 3 h and the area under the normalized clearance curve was calculated to quantify the lymphatic function. A statistically significant difference in lymphatic clearance in the healthy versus the lymphedema extremities was found, based on the obtained area under curves of the normalized clearance curves. This study provides the first evidence that the LymphMonitor technology has the potential to diagnose and monitor the lymphatic function in patients. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:37:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-67e1f999a0fb4da79b03b5d4a55700e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4418 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:37:31Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Diagnostics |
| spelling | doaj.art-67e1f999a0fb4da79b03b5d4a55700e72023-11-22T17:58:05ZengMDPI AGDiagnostics2075-44182021-10-011110187310.3390/diagnostics11101873Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic FunctionAnna Polomska0Epameinondas Gousopoulos1Daniel Fehr2Andreas Bachmann3Mathias Bonmarin4Michael Detmar5Nicole Lindenblatt6Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 3, 8093 Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Plastic and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, SwitzerlandZurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Institute of Computational Physics, Technikumstrasse 9, 8401 Winterthur, SwitzerlandZurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Institute of Computational Physics, Technikumstrasse 9, 8401 Winterthur, SwitzerlandZurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Institute of Computational Physics, Technikumstrasse 9, 8401 Winterthur, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 3, 8093 Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Plastic and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, SwitzerlandCurrent diagnostic methods for evaluating the functionality of the lymphatic vascular system usually do not provide quantitative data and suffer from many limitations including high costs, complexity, and the need to perform them in hospital settings. In this work, we present a quantitative, simple outpatient technology named LymphMonitor to quantitatively assess lymphatic function. This method is based on the painless injection of the lymphatic-specific near-infrared fluorescent tracer indocyanine green complexed with human serum albumin, using MicronJet600<sup>TM</sup> microneedles, and monitoring the disappearance of the fluorescence signal at the injection site over time using a portable detection device named LymphMeter. This technology was investigated in 10 patients with unilateral leg or arm lymphedema. After injection of a tracer solution into each limb, the signal was measured over 3 h and the area under the normalized clearance curve was calculated to quantify the lymphatic function. A statistically significant difference in lymphatic clearance in the healthy versus the lymphedema extremities was found, based on the obtained area under curves of the normalized clearance curves. This study provides the first evidence that the LymphMonitor technology has the potential to diagnose and monitor the lymphatic function in patients.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/10/1873lymphatic systemlymphedemamobile healthlymphatic function monitoringlymphographyindocyanine green |
| spellingShingle | Anna Polomska Epameinondas Gousopoulos Daniel Fehr Andreas Bachmann Mathias Bonmarin Michael Detmar Nicole Lindenblatt Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function Diagnostics lymphatic system lymphedema mobile health lymphatic function monitoring lymphography indocyanine green |
| title | Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function |
| title_full | Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function |
| title_fullStr | Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function |
| title_short | Development and Clinical Validation of the LymphMonitor Technology to Quantitatively Assess Lymphatic Function |
| title_sort | development and clinical validation of the lymphmonitor technology to quantitatively assess lymphatic function |
| topic | lymphatic system lymphedema mobile health lymphatic function monitoring lymphography indocyanine green |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/11/10/1873 |
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