Volumetric evaluation of upper extremities in 250 healthy persons

Abstract

Water displacement as used in this study is a highly reliable technique for volume measurement of upper extremities. This technique was applied to gather normative data for upper extremity volumes. We suggest that this technique can be used in daily clinical practice for the evaluation of upper extremity oedema or atrophy caused by various diseases as well as for volume monitoring. Prediction formulas can be used to define abnormal swelling.

Normative Volume Difference Between the Dominant and Nondominant Upper Limbs in Healthy Older Women

“…25 While this criteria has been accepted and supported for other tools used in the diagnosis of swelling, 25 others have suggested that two standard deviation above the mean may be more appropriate. 26 If a mean plus two standard deviation cut-off were to be adopted, our data indicate that for volume these would be 275 mL and 115 mL for the dominant and nondominant arm, respectively, when measured by perometry. The respective values for truncated cone measurements of volume would be 200 mL and 150 mL.…”

“…This may not be the best way to determine which hand is actually dominant, as it has been suggested that the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory is a more valid method to determine handedness. 26 Clinically, however, a patient's limb dominance is usually self-determined, as was done for this study.…”

“…If the commonly used clinical cut-off of 200 mL was used, 8% of our sample would have been incorrectly diagnosed with pathological swelling, which is a similar proportion to what has been previously reported. 7 Only one other set of normativelybased volume cut-offs has previously been suggested determined using the water displacement method of measurement, 26 which is not commonly used in clinical practice. 3 Smoot and colleagues suggested a starkly different inter-limb volume difference cut-off of 75 mL based on area under the curve analysis 2 .…”

High day-to-day reliability in lower leg volume measured by water displacement

“…Other investigations have shown that the measurement of hand (Eccles 1956;Farrell et al 2003), arm (Engler and Sweat 1962;Gebruers et al 2007;Sagen et al 2005;Taylor et al 2006) and foot (Goldie et al 1974) edema using volumetry is highly reliable. For example, Moholkar and Fenelon (2001) examined diurnal variation in edema of the feet and ankles by taking four water displacement measurements across a 9-h period in 20 adults restricted to bed rest.…”

Segmental Impedance Thresholds for Early Detection of Unilateral Upper Limb Swelling

“…11,12,19 Secondary thresholds of two standard deviations were also determined. 20 Intra-rater reliability and normal fluctuation of BIS ratios were determined with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC (1,1) ) from data collected on two occasions seven days apart. Standard error of the measurement (SEM = SD 1st test O1-ICC) and minimal detectable change (MDC = 1.96 O2 SEM) were determined for each arm segment and the hand.…”