• European radiology · Feb 2014

    Median nerve stiffness measurement by shear wave elastography: a potential sonographic method in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome.

    • Fatih Kantarci, Fethi Emre Ustabasioglu, Sakir Delil, Deniz Cebi Olgun, Bora Korkmazer, Atilla Suleyman Dikici, Onur Tutar, Mecbure Nalbantoglu, Nurten Uzun, and Ismail Mihmanli.
    • Department of Radiology, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, 34300, Kocamustafapasa, Istanbul, Turkey, fatihkan@yahoo.com.
    • Eur Radiol. 2014 Feb 1; 24 (2): 434-40.

    ObjectivesTo measure the median nerve (MN) stiffness by quantitative shear wave elastography (SWE) at the carpal tunnel inlet and to determine whether SWE can be used in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).MethodsThe study included 37 consecutive patients (60 wrists) with a definitive diagnosis of CTS and 18 healthy volunteers (36 wrists). The MN cross-sectional area (CSA) by ultrasound and stiffness by SWE were studied. The difference between CTS patients and controls, and the difference among subgroups based on electrodiagnostic tests were studied by the Student's t test. Interobserver variability and ROC analysis were performed.ResultsThe MN stiffness was significantly higher in the CTS group (66.7 kPa) when compared to controls (32.0 kPa) (P < 0.001), and higher in the severe or extreme severity group (101.4 kPa) than the mild or moderate severity group (55.1 kPa) (P < 0.001). A 40.4-kPa cut-off value on SWE revealed sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of 93.3%, 88.9%, 93.3%, 88.9% and 91.7%, respectively. Interobserver agreement was excellent for SWE measurements.ConclusionsMedian nerve stiffness at the carpal tunnel inlet is significantly higher in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome, for whom shear wave elastography appears to be a highly reproducible diagnostic technique.Key Points• Clinical examination is important for diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome • Shear wave elastography (SWE) offers new clinical opportunities within diagnostic ultrasound • SWE is highly reproducible in evaluation of median nerve stiffness • Median nerve stiffness is significantly increased in carpal tunnel syndrome • Elastography could become useful in diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…