26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Optical Coherence Tomography of Human Lymphatic Vessels to Inform Computational Modelling of Lymphoedema

Not scheduled

20m

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Poster ANZOS | Photonics and Optics (ANZCOP)

Description

Breast cancer-related lymphoedema is a chronic condition characterised by tissue swelling in the upper extremities, affecting approximately 20% of breast cancer patients following treatment [1]. This incurable disease arises when the lymphatic system is damaged and fails to maintain tissue fluid homeostasis by transporting excess interstitial fluid back to the bloodstream. Despite advances in breast cancer treatment, accurately predicting which patients will develop lymphoedema following treatment remains challenging. Computational modelling offers a powerful tool to predict who might develop lymphoedema, however, realistic models require quantitative anatomical and functional data to inform them. Obtaining this data has been historically challenging largely due to the inability of existing imaging modalities to adequately characterise the superficial lymphatic vessel network.

In this work, a custom-built, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system will be used to image the initial lymphatic vasculature in the skin of healthy human volunteers. The acquired three-dimensional OCT volumes will be segmented to reconstruct the lymphatic vessel network. Anatomical measurements, including branching morphology and network topology, together with derived functional parameters, will then be extracted from the reconstructed vessel network. These measurements will be used to parametrise an existing physics-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, enabling simulation of lymphatic flow based on the acquired quantitative human OCT datasets.

By combining high-resolution OCT imaging with physics-based computational modelling, this work aims to establish a quantitative imaging and modelling framework for investigating the altered lymphatic transport associated with the onset and development of lymphoedema. This framework may provide new insights into lymphatic fluid dynamics and contribute to improved predictions of who may develop breast cancer-related lymphoedema.

[1] Mclaughlin, S. A., Brunelle, C. L. & Taghian, A. Breast Cancer–Related Lymphedema: Risk Factors, Screening, Management, and the Impact of Locoregional Treatment. Journal of Clinical Oncology 38, 2341–2350 (2020).