Yong Seo Koo1, Ha-Rim Park1, Byung-Euk Joo1, Jeong-Yoon Choi1, Ki-Young Jung1, Kun-Woo Park1, S Charles Cho2, Byung-Jo Kim3. 1. Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 2. Department of Neurology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA. 3. Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: nukbj@korea.ac.kr.
Abstract
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. SIGNIFICANCE: The CuSP is a useful ancillary test to evaluate Adelta fibre function; however, it is not a reliable tool to quantify clinical severity. 2010 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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. SIGNIFICANCE: The CuSP is a useful ancillary test to evaluate Adelta fibre function; however, it is not a reliable tool to quantify clinical severity. 2010 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.