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Updated: Aug 18, 2026
Screening of Axonal Degeneration in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Using Ultrasonography and Nerve Conduction Studies
Published on: January 11, 2019
Multicenter study on carpal tunnel syndrome and pregnancy incidence and natural course
C Pazzaglia1, P Caliandro, I Aprile
1Istituto di Neurologia, Università Cattolica S.C., Roma, Italy.
Objective:
To evaluate the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in pregnancy through a validated and multiperspective assessment of CTS and to assess the course of carpal tunnel syndrome after pregnancy.
Methods:
During 2000-2001, the Italian CTS study group in 7 Italian centers studied the occurrence of CTS in women during the last period of pregnancy. The group enrolled and followed-up (10-15 months) 63 women during and after pregnancy with multiple measurements of CTS. In addition to the physician-centered and neurophysiologic traditional evaluations, a validated patient-oriented measurement to obtain more comprehensive and consistent data for severity of symptoms and functional impairment was adopted.
Results:
CTS was clinically diagnosed in more than half of women (62%). Neurophysiological evaluation provided diagnosis of CTS in around half of women (43% were positive in one hand at least). Comparison of baseline and follow-up data showed a significant spontaneous improvement of patient-oriented and neurophysiologic measurements. Nevertheless, about half of women with CTS during pregnancy still complained of CTS symptoms one year after delivery.
Conclusions:
Our observations confirmed the frequent occurrence of CTS in pregnancy. At follow-up we observed that most CTS cases improve spontaneously without treatment but only in half of women CTS symptoms disappeared one year after delivery.
