Analysis of MR Imaging of Wrists in Female Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Healthy Controls

The objective of this study was to evaluate morphological changes of the median nerve in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and healthy controls, to correlate the MRI findings of wrists. This study compared not only morphological changes of the median nerve and also displayed descriptively structures in carpal tunnel between patients diagnosed with idopathic CTS and healthy controls. Our study involved 60 hand, 30 of hand were evaluated diagnosed with idiopathic CTS and 30 hand as healthy controls bilaterally. Two provocative tests (Phalen's and Tinel's test) were performed on each hand for both the patient group (60 wrist) and the control group (60 wrist). With regard to Phalen and Tinel's test results, 24 and 26 wrists were excluded from patient and control groups respectively. Totally 70 wrists were evaluated, and in terms of cross-sectional area of median nerve at the level of distal radio-ulnar joint, pisiform bone and the hook of hamate bone by MRI in the patient and control groups. In addition to evaluation of cross-sectional area of median nerve, we determined signal intensity of wrists and different localization of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. Cross-sectional area of the median nerve measured by wrist magnetic resonance at the level of metacarpal bones and signal intensity of wrists may be considered as a valuable indicator to determine patients referred with idiopathic CTS.