Lymphedema is a painful disease that causes fluids to build up and swell in body tissue, afflicting more than a million Canadians. But the lymphatic system, responsible for the drainage of such fluids, is one of the least understood in the body.
Because lymphedema is difficult to diagnose at early stages, the need for high-resolution imaging tools is urgent. Now, a University of Alberta team has been awarded $8 million over two years from the U.S.-based Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a next-generation 3D ultrasound scanning system.
Existing optical, nuclear and MRI imaging technologies “struggle to visualize lymphatic and blood vessels at the micro scale,” says Roger Zemp of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His team has developed technologies based on massive new ultrasound arrays, super-resolution contrast ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging (firing safe laser pulses into the body, where they are detected and reconstructed to form images) of the lymphatics.
If successful, the project “will provide clinicians with a game-changing technology which will be a paradigm shift in many ways,” says Zemp.
“It will revolutionize the way patients with lymphatic disorders are diagnosed and treated,” enhancing the work of the U of A’s Lymphedema Research and Training Program.