Body, wrist, and hand anthropometric measurements as risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome

Abstract

Aim The aim of this study was to identify cut-off values for body, hand, and wrist measurements in order to correctly identify individuals with increased risk of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Patients and methods This study included 30 patients with clinically diagnosed and electrophysiologically confirmed idiopathic CTS and 30 age-matched and sex-matched healthy volunteers as the control group. Both groups performed sensory and motor conduction studies of the median nerve. Body, hand, and wrist anthropometric measurements were taken including weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumferences, wrist depth/width, third digit length, palm length/width, and hand length. Obesity indicators and hand/wrist ratios were calculated. Area under the ROC curve (AUC), confidence intervals, cut-off values, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated separately for each measured parameter. Results There were statistically significant differences among the studied participants regarding all measured anthropometric parameters (P<0.001). As a result, all studied patients had squarer wrists and shorter hands than healthy participants. The AUC values for all studied measurements showed high accuracy (AUC<95) except for hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, palm length, third digit length, and digit index which showed moderate accuracy. In the studied patients there were positive significant correlations between BMI, wrist depth, wrist ratio, and shape index with an electrophysiological severity grading of CTS of the studied patients; on the other hand, there were negative significant correlations between palm length, hand length, and hand ratio with electrophysiological severity grading of CTS. Conclusion The cut-off values for body, wrist, and hand anthropometric measurements are useful tools to assess the risk factors for CTS.

Keywords

• anthropometric measurements
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• risk factors