Comparative analysis of changes in motor and sensory transcarpal conduction velocity in carpal tunnel syndrome
Keywords:
CTS, median wrist-palm conduction velocityAbstract
Objective: To compare the sensitivity of median wristpalm motor conduction velocity (W-P MCV) with those of standard sensory conduction techniques in the electrodiagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).
Methods: This study included 65 consecutively suspected CTS patients (130 hands) referred for evaluation and 50 volunteers who served as controls. We determined and calculated median W-P MCV, median motor distal latencies (MDL) and median sensory DSL for thumb (D1), third digit (D3) and ring finger (D4) and median wristpalm sensory conduction velocity (W-P SCV). The normal limits were calculated from the median of normal controls ±2.0 standard deviations. The sensitivities of each test were determined and compared.
Results: Among the 130 hands with suspected CTS, 8 hands (6,15%) had normal electrodiagnostic studies and 122 (93,8%) had at least one abnormal electrodiagnostic study. Among the 122 hands with abnormalities, 80 (65,5%) had abnormal motor DML and 108 (88,5%) had abnormal W-P MCV. The sensitivity was 80,3% for D1, 72,1% for D3, 75,4% for D4 and 81,9% for W-P SCV.
Conclusions: W-P MCV is a valuable motor conduction technique for the diagnosis of CTS and it is confirmed that W-P MCV is a sensitive as W-P SCV. In patients with clinical CTS screening data, in whom the results of sensory nerve conduction studies as DSL and DML are normal, assessment of motor and sensory W-P, alltogether yield significantly higher value.
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