Comprehensive Assessment of Ultrasound's Role in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Reference to Electromyography

Cureus. 2021 Dec 29;13(12):e20798. doi: 10.7759/cureus.20798. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common peripheral mononeuropathy related to entrapment syndrome. An increase in the median nerve cross-sectional area (CSA) is visualized using ultrasound (US) imaging for CTS patients. This study aims to correlate, for the first time in the state of Qatar, the findings of US imaging and electromyography (EMG) in patients with CTS for diagnostic and classification purposes. First, US CSA was numerically obtained from patients' records. Second, EMG findings were gathered as normal, mild, moderate, and severe CTS. After that, we performed a different statistical approach than those used in the literature, using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests for the final analysis. In summary, we found that the US seems unable to differentiate some normal from mild CTS cases; however, it appears to be excellent at differentiating moderate from severe CTS cases.

Keywords: carpal tunnel syndrome; cross-sectional area; diagnosis; sensitivity; ultrasound.