Evaluation of upper limb disability in pregnant women suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] is a collection of sensory-motor signs and symptoms which are created due to mechanical pressure on median nerve at wrist. A considerable portion of these patients are pregnant women. The aim of this study was evaluate functional disabilities of upper limb due to CTS in pregnant women. A descriptive and analytical study was performed on 267 pregnant women, who had received health care service in Obstetrics and Gynecology clinics of Shariati and Sepahan hospitals in Isfahan Iran, 2005. From the total number of the pregnant women, 52 women who were affected by carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] and 54 women who had not shown the symptoms of CTS were divided in two different groups. Minor and background data were obtained from conversation and physical examination. Scores of functional disability of upper limb were obtained from DASH questionnaire. Student's t test and Man-Whitney test were used to compare the difference between groups. 52 out of 267 pregnant women [19.47%] suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] with average age of 25 +/- 4.3 years. 51.9% of the women were experiencing their first pregnancy [primigravida]. 82.7% of the pregnant women affected carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] in third trimester of their pregnancy. The average weight gain in affected carpal tunnel syndrome women was significantly more than the asymptomatic women [P < 0.001]. The total score and mean score of other parts of DASH scoring system in affected carpal tunnel syndrome women were significantly higher than the asymptomatic women [P < 0.001]. Carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] in pregnant women, especially during third trimester, can lead to functional disabilities in their upper limb. As a result, it can cause undesirable effects on personal efficiency. So, it is needed to teach and give more information to the pregnant women about these disabilities

Predictive value of variation in blood flow of the middle cerebral artery measured using transcranial Doppler sonography in patients with acute brain stroke

Transcranial Doppler sonography [TCD] is a noninvasive, inexpensive, timesaving and portable imaging modality for localizing cerebral arterial pathology in patients with acute stroke especially in middle cerebral artery [MCA]. The present study was aimed to evaluate the predictive value of MCA hemodynamics status for recovery outcomes one and six months after the first appearance of the disease. This a prospective study was performed on 102 patients with cerebral ischemia who referred to Sina hospital of Hamadan in 1384. TCD was done during 24 hours after the admission along with routine medical management. Patients with previous stroke, head trauma, death and unknown diagnosis were excluded. The patients were divided into three groups based on their TCD. The first group, those with normal symmetric blood flow, the second one, those with decreased non-symmetric blood flow and the third, those with decreased symmetric blood flow of MCA. The physical examinations were repeated one and six months later and the outcomes were recorded. Using Cruscal-Vali statistical test, the data were analyzed. The mean of age in the patients was 65.39 +/- 12.67 and 48% of them were male. The motor function was improved significantly in the three groups [p<0.05]. After six months, the patient of group two had a better clinical improvement compared with groups one and three [p<0.01]. However, the speech and sphincteric disorders improved similarly in the three groups [p>0.05]. Evaluation of MCA hemodynamics status by TCD predicts the motor function improvement six months later in the patients with acute brain stroke