Application of ultrasound elastography for determining carpal tunnel syndrome severity

Abstract

Sono-elastography could be a useful diagnostic method for evaluating CTS severity in affected cases.

Shear Wave and Strain Elastographic Features of the Brachial Plexus in Healthy Adults: Reliability of the Findings—a Pilot Study

“…Ultrasound imaging is a beneficial and effective method for describing and analyzing the course of the brachial plexus and can guide therapeutic interventions . Sonoelastography is a sophisticated US technique that can detect tissue stiffness in vivo and can be helpful in the diagnosis of neuropathies . In this study, we showed that the brachial plexus in healthy individuals had intermediate stiffness with poor to moderate interobserver agreement and no correlation with age or sex.…”

“…Due to the lack of any previous study evaluating brachial plexus elasticity, we could not compare our SWE and SE findings with the literature. There were a few studies on peripheral nerve elasticity, which were mostly about the median nerve in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) on either SWE or SE with different US machines . Kantarci et al compared the elastic modulus of the median nerve in patients with and without CTS on the longitudinal axis and found that the median nerve was stiffer in the CTS group (66.7 ± 26.5 kPa in the CTS group and 32.0 ± 8.4 kPa in the control group).…”

“…Kantarci et al compared the elastic modulus of the median nerve in patients with and without CTS on the longitudinal axis and found that the median nerve was stiffer in the CTS group (66.7 ± 26.5 kPa in the CTS group and 32.0 ± 8.4 kPa in the control group). Ghajarzadeh et al compared SE images of the median nerve in CTS and control groups by using color indices and found that median nerve was stiffer in CTS. Tatar et al evaluated the median nerve in CTS by SE on the transverse axis and found a mean strain ratio of 1.85 ± 0.65 in the control group.…”

“…Shear wave elastography can allow visualization and documentation of absolute stiffness in kilopascals or meters per second objectively without a maneuver . Sonoelastography of peripheral nerves in patients with trapped neuropathies has been investigated and compared with healthy individuals by using either SWE or SE . As far as we know, however, no study on the reliability of sonoelastography of the brachial plexus has been reported in the medical literature in English.…”

Carpal tunnel syndrome: elastosonographic strain ratio andcross-sectional area evaluation for the diagnosis and disease severity.

“…Mean CSA, total blue pixels, and blue indexes were significantly different between cases with different degrees of severity and the controls. They concluded that sonoelastography could be used in the diagnosis and evaluation of the severity of CTS cases [24]. Kantarci et al have published a study utilizing quantitative shear wave elastography in which they concluded that median nerve stiffness was significantly increased in patients 57.1%, 72.3% and 58.5%, respectively, in the proximal and middle segments; 75%, 57.1%, 72.7% and 60% in the distal segments.…”