Lumbrical-interosseous internal comparison study in carpal tunnel syndrome
Keywords:
carpal tunnel syndrome, nerve conduction, electrodiagnosisAbstract
Introduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome is a mononeuropathy linked to the entrapment of the median nerve at the carpal joint, specifically within the tunnel that bears its name.
Objective: To determine the diagnostic value of the lumbrical-interosseous motor nerve conduction comparison study in patients with suspected carpal tunnel syndrome.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study involving 32 patients referred with a clinical diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, evaluated at the clinical neurophysiology laboratory of Julio Díaz González Hospital from June 2023 to April 2025. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed and analyzed to compare the discriminative capacity of the electrodiagnostic tests.
Results: Women aged 40–59 years (mean age 53.5 years) predominated; the cohort consisted mainly of housewives who were right-hand dominant. Bilateral hand involvement was observed in 28.1% of cases, and pain radiation to the cervical region and upper limbs in 37.5%. The most prevalent symptoms were numbness (96.9%), pain (93.7%), nocturnal paresthesias (87.5%), and positive Tinel (75.0%) and Phalen (96.9%) signs. Statistically significant associations (p ≤ 0.05) were found regarding test positivity: 82.3% for the palmar median nerve, 85.9% for the motor median nerve, and 90.2% for the lumbrical-interosseous difference.
Conclusions: The lumbrical-interosseous internal comparison test demonstrates a superior capacity for the electrophysiological confirmation of carpal tunnel syndrome compared to conventional nerve conduction studies.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Miriam Sofia Najera Salgado, Yaima Almanza Diaz, Jorge Luis González Roig
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