CORRELATION BETWEEN HEMODIALYSIS DURATION AND CARPAL TUNNEL AND PALMAR RADIOCARPAL LIGAMENT THICKNESS IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS (ULTRASONOGRAPHIC EVALUATION)

The carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most frequent clinical symptom of dialysis-related amyloidosis. It is aimed to establish a correlation between hemodialysis duration (HD) and carpal tunnel (CT) and palmar radiocarpal ligament (PRL) thickness in hemodialysis patients. One hundred two wrists of 51 hemodialysis patients and 50 wrists of 100 healthy subjects were examined with ultrasonography (US). On the basis of the HD, the patients were divided into four groups. The width of inner diameter ofCT and the thickness of the PRL are measured with US in hemodialysis patients and the data are compared with the control group There was no significant difference between the control group and groups I and II (p>0.05). The difference between the control group and groups III andIVwas significant (p<0.05). As a result of this study, in patient groups, the thickness of the PRL and the width of inner diameter of CT were correlated with HD. We suggested that US is an easy and noninvasive method to evaluate CTS due to dialysis-related amyloidosis.