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
Conclusion
BCRL may cause a compression to the median nerve at carpal tunnel due to soft tissue swelling and increased pressure in the carpal tunnel.
Our study demonstrated a strong positive correlation with the stiffness of the median nerve and duration of the lymphedema
Previously,
chronic flexed wrist posture was shown to cause a decrease in the CSA of the median nerve due to chronic compression after stroke and increase in the stiffness of the median nerve in stroke patients (4).
BCRL may cause soft tissue swelling and decrease in the carpal tunnel volume.
The increased pressure in the carpal tunnel may cause the neural ischemia.
It may result in the increased stiffness of the median nerve.
There are several limitations of the study.
The first one was the limited number of the patients.
The second limitation was that the absence of peripheral neuropathy was not confirmed by performing electrophysiological studies.
In conclusion our results suggest that the increase in the median nerve stiffness may affect the severity of pain and the disability score negatively.
The median nerve stiffness measured by SWE may provide quantitative information to monitor the BCRL.