Abstract
This study aimed to assess the distribution of frequency of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) symptoms between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. In this study, 117 Saudi volunteers, 56 (47.86%) were type 2 diabetics and 61(52.13%) were non-diabetic subjects. Among diabetics, 15 (26.8%) were males and 41 (73.2%) were females and among non-diabetics 16 (26.2%) were males and 45 (73.8%) were females. The mean age for diabetics was 49.68 years and for non-diabetics 49.64 years. CTS was diagnosed based on the clinical history and examinations, for further confirmation of CTS, Nerve conduction studies (NCS) were carried out by using EMG machine. Frequencies of CTS symptoms were recorded.
The frequency distributions of CTS symptoms among diabetic subjects were 27 (48.2%) in both hands, 20 (35.7%) in right hand and 9 (16.1%) in left hand. However, in non-diabetic subjects the frequencies of CTS symptoms were 28 (45.9%) in both hands, 24 (39.3%) in right hand and 9 (14.8%) in left hand. Based on the age and gender, there was no significant difference in the distribution of clinical picture of CTS symptoms between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Among diabetic and non-diabetics, the CTS symptoms were slightly more in females compared to males and these symptoms were more in dominant hand (right) compared to non-dominant hand (left).