Keywords:
Musculoskeletal soft tissue, Neuroradiology peripheral nerve, Elastography, Diagnostic procedure
Authors:
H. Aslan, P. D. Analan, E. Kaya; Adana/TR
DOI:
10.1594/essr2018/P-0073
Methods and Materials
This study conforms to the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee and supported by the Institutional Research Fund.
Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.
This prospective study included 15 consecutive patients (mean age,
56.8±3.2 years) with having BCRL(fig.1).
The stiffness of the median nerve was measured by Virtual Touch tissue imaging quantification method (VTIQ; Siemens,
Erlangen,
Germany).
The severity of pain was measured by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).
The disability score of the affected extremity was measured by Quick DASH scale (The Disabilities of the Arm,
Shoulder and Hand Score).
Shear Wave Speeds (SWS) of the median nerves of the affected and unaffected sides for each patient were measured and compared.
The correlations between the stiffness of the median nerve on the affected side,
VAS and Quick DASH scores were also assessed.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were expressed as mean ± standard deviation.
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test normality of data.
Comparisons between groups were applied using the Student t test for normally distributed data and the Mann–Whitney U test for data that were not normally distributed.
The correlation of sonoelastographic findings with the clinical parameters were assessed by using Pearson correlation coefficient test.
The correlation coefficients were interpreted as either excellent r≥0.91; good 0.90≥r≥0.71; fair 0.70≥r≥0.51; weak 0.50≥r≥0.31; or little or none r≤0.3.
The significance level was determined at p<.05.
All statistical tests were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software program (Chicago,
IL,
USA) for Mac version 20.0.