Azadeh Hamid, Dehghani Mohammad, Zarezadeh Abolghasem
Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology, Physiotherapy Department, School of Rehabilitation Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
J Res Med Sci. 2010 Sep;15(5):250-5.
Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) often complain of prominent pain in shoulder and arm, also there are patients that have pain in their shoulder and arm which is due to myofascial trigger point (MTP) located in their upper trapezius muscle. Despite the frequency of this observation, few studies have previously sought to establish possible relationship between the CTS and MTP in shoulder area.
Samples were 160 patients (221 hands) consist of 130 females and 30 males, with suspected diagnosis of CTS, from March 2008 to October 2008. In this study after performing electrodiagnosis searches, another evaluation was performed to find out if there was any sign of myofascial trigger point. The correlation between these two was sought.
It was found that all of 36 hands with normal electrodiagnostic findings had myofascial trigger points in their upper trapezius muscle. Out of 185 hands, 130 hands (70%) with electrophysiological evidences of CTS showed myofascial trigger points in their trapezius muscles. Statistical analysis revealed significant (p < 0.001) reverse correlation between the severity of CTS and the presence of MTP.
The findings of this study imply the significant correlation between occurrence of CTS and MTP. It is suggested that clinicians consider the probability of existence of MTP in patients referred for diagnosis of CTS.
腕管综合征（CTS）患者常主诉肩部和手臂疼痛明显，也有患者肩部和手臂疼痛是由于上斜方肌中的肌筋膜触发点（MTP）所致。尽管这种情况很常见，但此前很少有研究试图确定CTS与肩部区域MTP之间的可能关系。
样本为2008年3月至2008年10月期间160例疑似CTS的患者（221只手），其中女性130例，男性30例。在本研究中，进行电诊断检查后，进行了另一项评估，以确定是否有肌筋膜触发点的迹象。并探寻两者之间的相关性。
发现所有36只电诊断结果正常的手在上斜方肌中均有肌筋膜触发点。在185只手中，130只（70%）有CTS电生理证据的手在其斜方肌中显示有肌筋膜触发点。统计分析显示CTS严重程度与MTP的存在之间存在显著的（p < 0.001）负相关。
本研究结果表明CTS的发生与MTP之间存在显著相关性。建议临床医生在诊断CTS的患者中考虑MTP存在的可能性。
