The edema tester in the evaluation of swollen limbs in venous and lymphatic disease

Background. Edema is a common condition in most venous and lymphatic diseas es, The ACI edema testers (ET) have been developed to objectively evaluate the presence of edema, Two types of testers have been developed. ET1 is a s oft plastic plate (5x2 cm) characterised by two parallel protrusions while the ET2 is characterised by two lines of 7 holes. Methods. The ETs are applied onto the internal perimalleolar region with th e protrusions/holes in contact with the skin, A blood pressure cuff is appl ied over the area (pressure maintained at 50 mmHg for a period between 1-3 minutes). When the cuff is removed, with the ET1 skin marks are usually jus t visible in normal limbs (they disappear in a few minutes), We studied 22 normal limbs, 19 with varicose veins, 22 with chronic venous insufficiency, 5 with primary lymphedema and 8 with severe chronic lymphedema, Results. In Limbs with severe edema the whole length of the protrusions is visible; with moderate edema only a part of the protrusions is visible. Wit h the ET2 skin marks are just visible in normal limbs (only the larger hole s). Marks disappear in a few minutes in normal limbs while in limbs with ed ema the number of visible holes is increased tin severe edema all holes are visible). There were significant differences between normals and patients (considering skin mark length, number of visible holes and disappearance ti mes), Conclusions, The two testers separated patients with different severity of edema due to chronic venous or lymphatic problems. In severe lymphatic prob lems all parameters were different (p<0.02) from those observed in venous d isease, A reproducibility study indicated that the ET tests have minimal va riations in mark visibility or length or hole numbers (for the ET2).