Comparison of median wrist-to-palm motor conduction velocity and two median-ulnar latency differences in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome

Abstract

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy in clinical practice. There are patients with symptoms and signs suggestive of CTS who remain difficult to diagnose using standard electrophysiologic techniques. To date, there have been few studies concerning the efficacy of the various techniques for measuring median motor conductions in the diagnosis of CTS. The purpose of this study was to determine which motor conduction techniques are more sensitive for diagnosing CTS. Method : We analyzed 74 patients (120 hands) who were diagnosed with CTS for the past 1 year in our hospital. Median motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity (MCV & SCV) with wrist(W), palm(P) and finger(F) stimulation was performed in traditional methods. The determination of W-P MCV and SCV. Two motor distal latency differences between the median-thenar and ulnar-hypothenar muscles were measured and calculated. Sensitivity of each test was calculated