Correlation between Ultrasound Findings and Nerve Conduction Studies in Evaluation of Upper Limb Neuropathy

Background: Entrapment neuropathy (EN), also termed impingement or compression neuropathy, refers to a clinical condition resulting from peripheral nerve compression within narrow anatomical spaces or tunnels, secondary to causes such as trauma, congenital anomalies, tumors, or metabolic disorders.
Objective: This work assessed the correlation between high-resolution ultrasound (US) findings and nerve conduction studies (NCS) in upper-limb EN.
Patients and Methods: This prospective study involved 54 patients attending the neurology outpatient clinic with suspected unilateral or bilateral upper-limb nerve entrapment underwent US, Doppler sonography, and NCS.
Results: There was significant association between patients’ nerve conduction results and ultrasonography doppler activity. The ultrasonography doppler activity outcomes were statistically significantly related to nerve conduction outcomes (p-value<0.001) with Substantial agreement as kappa co-efficient = 0.653.
Conclusion:  High-resolution US is a powerful adjunct to NCS in diagnosing upper-limb EN. Marked Doppler hyper-vascularity and enlargement of the nerve cross-sectional area (CSA) were strongly associated with abnormal electrophysiologic results,