Ultrasound of Median Nerve in the Diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-Correlation with Electrophysiological Studies

Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy caused by impairment of the median nerve due to compression as it passes through the carpal tunnel.The current gold standard in diagnosing CTS and nerve damage is by electrophysiological nerve conduction study (NCS). However, 10 to 25% of NCS results are falsely negative. Moreover, NCS remains an expensive and time-consuming procedure for patients. Ultrasonography serves as a real-time, well-tolerated, portable, and noninvasive tool for assessing the carpal tunnel.This study aims to assess the role of high-frequency ultrasound of the median nerve at the wrist in evaluating CTS and correlate with NCS to determine whether sonography can be used as an alternative to NCS in diagnosing and grading CTS.