[The contribution made by neurophysiological and ultrasound imaging studies to the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. Surgical correlation].

INTRODUCTION

Electrophysiological study has been for long time the elected approach for the diagnosis and clinical evaluation of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). More recently, echography and other imaging techniques have been introduced in current medicine for their potential in the anatomical evaluation of the neural compression. To asses the usefulness of both diagnostic procedures we have compared the findings obtained by electrophysiological and echographic approaches in a group of 60 CTS patients with different degrees of the disease.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

In all patients the conduction velocity was evaluated in the median and cubital nerves using surface electrodes. For echography lineal transductors of 5-10 Hz and 5-12.5 MHz were employed.

RESULTS

The patients were distributed for each test on a scale depending of the severity of the alterations detected by the corresponding technique and both files were subsequently compared by regression analysis, Pearson test and paired-test. No correlation was detected in any of the statistical test.

CONCLUSIONS

The lack of correlation between the results of both proofs emphasizes the usefulness of the two diagnostic approaches in CTS. While electrophysiological study provides information about nerve function, ecography unravels the morphological alterations accounting for the syndrome, therefore being non-excluding complementary approaches.