Introduction: Ultrasonography is a tool that has advanced a great deal in the diagnosis of neural compressive pathologies, such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). In order to plan the treatment it is important to establish the severity of the pathology, which means that it would be important to know the capacity of ultrasonography to determine the extent to which the median nerve is compromised at this level.
Aim: To investigate the correlation between ultrasound measurements and electrophysiological severity in patients with CTS.
Patients and methods: Ultrasound measurements were performed with 59 subjects (97 wrists) who were referred to have an electroneurogram (ENG) due to suspected CTS. According to the ENG, the subjects were classified as healthy, mild, moderate or severe CTS. The relationship between the ultrasound measurements and the results of the ENG were later analysed in terms of their severity. The ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves were calculated for the optimal cut-off values in each group, taking into account their severity.
Results: Both ultrasound measurements showed a correlation with the severity of the CTS determined by ENG. The cross-sectional area of the median nerve in the wrist (CSA-W) showed the highest correlation (r = 0.613).
Conclusions: There is a relation between the ultrasound measurements of the median nerve, especially in the CSA-W, and the severity of CTS in the clinical context. These measurements could be used as complementary data to diagnose CTS and to determine its severity.
Title: Relacion entre las mediciones ecograficas del nervio mediano y la gravedad electrofisiologica en el sindrome del tunel carpiano.
Introduccion. La ecografia es una herramienta que ha experimentado un gran desarrollo en el diagnostico de patologias compresivas neurales, como el sindrome del tunel carpiano (STC). Para planificar el tratamiento es importante establecer la gravedad de la patologia, por lo que seria relevante conocer la capacidad de la ecografia para discriminar el grado de afectacion del nervio mediano a este nivel. Objetivo. Investigar la correlacion de las mediciones ecograficas con la gravedad electrofisiologica en pacientes con STC. Pacientes y metodos. Se realizaron mediciones ecograficas en 59 sujetos (97 muñecas) remitidos para recibir un electroneurograma (ENG) por sospecha de STC. Segun el ENG, los sujetos se clasificaron como sanos, STC leve, moderado o grave. Posteriormente, se analizo la relacion entre las mediciones ecograficas y los resultados del ENG segun su gravedad. Tambien se calcularon las curvas ROC (receiver operaing characteristic) para los valores de corte optimos en cada grupo atendiendo a su gravedad. Resultados. Ambas mediciones ecograficas mostraron correlacion con la gravedad del STC determinada por el ENG. El area de seccion transversal del nervio mediano en la muñeca (AST-M) mostro la mayor correlacion (r = 0,613). Conclusiones. Existe relacion entre las mediciones ecograficas del nervio mediano, especialmente en el AST-M, y la gravedad del STC en un contexto clinico. Dichas mediciones podrian ser complementarias para diagnosticar el STC y determinar su gravedad.