Evaluation of clinical tests in diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome with special reference to modified Duran's test regarding specificity and sensitivity

Abstract EN

A prospective study on 110 symptomatic patients (150 hands) with CTS.

All were analyzed depending on history, clinical examination, EMG and NCS and 118 asymptomatic persons (150 hands) as control group.

Five currently used clinical provocative tests were applied on both groups : original Duran's test, Phalen's test, reversed Phalen's test, tinels test and arm tourniquent test, in addition to our modification of Duran's test which was compared with the previous tests, regarding sensitivity, specificity and accuracy.

It was concluded that modified Duran's test was the most sensitive (94.7 %), specific (94.7 %) and accurate (94.7) in relation to other provocative tests.

The positivity rate of modified Duran's test in cases less than 1 month history of symptoms was 8 0 % which is higher than the other tests.

Modified Duran's test has the shortest reaction time (mean time 10.5seconds) as compared with other clinical tests apart from Tinel's test.