Utility of the cutaneous silent period in the evaluation of carpal tunnel syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigates the utility of the cutaneous silent period (CuSP) in evaluating patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).


METHODS
The authors measured the CuSP from the abductor pollicis brevis muscle in 135 hands of patients with idiopathic CTS and 30 hands of age- and gender-matched controls. The patient group was further divided into subgroups according to the Canterbury scale. The differences in parameters between the patient subgroups and control group were analysed. A predetermined analysis looked at the possible correlation between the CuSP and symptom severity as measured by the Boston-Questionnaire.


RESULTS
The mean CuSP latencies in the patient group (72.4+/-16.1 ms) was significantly longer than the control group (64.6+/-13.4 ms; P=0.014), although there was no difference in the duration of the CuSP between groups. The duration and latency of the CuSP correlated to a higher severity on the Canterbury scale (r=0.273, P<0.001 and r=-0.164, P=0.036, respectively). However, the CuSP parameters did not correlate with the Boston-Questionnaire scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Although patients with CTS had significantly prolonged CuSP latency, the CuSP did not correlate with the clinical symptoms scale.


CONCLUSIONS
The CuSP is a useful ancillary test to evaluate Adelta fibre function; however, it is not a reliable tool to quantify clinical severity.
Koo
Yong Seo
YS
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Park
Ha-Rim
HR
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Joo
Byung-Euk
BE
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Choi
Jeong-Yoon
JY
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Jung
Ki-Young
KY
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Park
Kun-Woo
KW
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Cho
S Charles
SC
Department of Neurology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA.
Kim
Byung-Jo
BJ
Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: nukbj@korea.ac.kr.
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002349:Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires