BILATERAL FAST MR-IMAGING OF THE RHEUMATOID WRIST

To evaluate the structural changes in the carpal tunnel and possible i ntrinsic median nerve damages in RA patients, quantitative bilateral m agnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the wrists was performed by means o f a fast imaging sequence, Thirty-three women with Ri and 42 controls were examined. The length of the carpal tunnel, the carpal tunnel volu me/wrist volume (CTV/WV) ratio and the signal intensity of the nerve w ere calculated in both groups, bilaterally, The CTV/WV ratio was 0.12 in the patients and 0.11 in the control group (p=0.007). A negative as sociation was found between disease duration and carpal tunnel volume/ wrist volume ratio (p=0.049), Mean distal latency in the right motor m edian nerve was 3.0+/-0.4 msec (patients) and 3.4+/-0.6 msec (controls ) (p=0.002). Mean values in the right sensory branch were 1.2+/-0.1 ms ec (patients) and 1.4+/-0.3 (controls) (p=0.01), The lack of associati on between the size of the carpal canal and neurophysiological paramet ers found in this study may suggest a possible protection of the media n nerve by the increased canal size in patients with RA.