The role of preoperative ultrasound in the management of peripheral nerve injuries.

BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve injury refers to any damage or trauma to the nerves located outside the central nervous system. Ultrasonography is a reliable, cheap, and minimally invasive method in clinical practice to give physicians useful information about nerve injury. OBJECTIVES: to assess the power of ultrasound in determining the presence, localization, and extent of neural damage in patients with clinical evidence of peripheral nerve lesions before surgery. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 78 patients (56 females and 22 males, aged from 9 to 52 years) who had different pathologies including entrapment, tumoral, post-traumatic, and post-surgical nerve injuries at the Neurosurgery and Physical Medicine, Rheumatology, and Rehabilitation Departments, Tanta University Hospitals. All studied patients had preoperative evaluation; neurological examination, electrodiagnostic studies, and sonographic examinations with linear array transducers (frequencies ranging from 7.5 to 16 MHz). RESULTS: The most common pathological condition was entrapment neuropathy (39 patients) (50%). Ultrasound complemented the electrodiagnostic studies by determining the site of entrapment manifested by increased mean maximum cross-sectional area of the nerve proximal to the site of entrapment and nerve hypoechogenicity. In post-traumatic and iatrogenic neuropathies (35 patients) (44.9%), the ultrasound finding revealed neuroma in continuity in nine cases (11.5%), complete neurotmesis with stump neuroma in eighteen patients (23.1%), and eight cases (10.3%) showed perineural adhesion. In all cases, the nerve was hypoechoic at the site of injury. The presence of hyperechoic fibrous tissue could indicate perineural adhesion and the necessity for neurolysis. This study also included three (3.8%) cases had schwannoma, and one case (1.3%) had neurofibroma. Ultrasound was used to confirm the diagnosis by determining the tumor's size and vascular supply. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonography is a diagnostic and surgical planning tool that is becoming more and more useful for the management of peripheral nerve injuries. Its high resolution and real-time capability provide safe and cost-effective scans that aid in determining the extent of injuries. For patients with peripheral nerve injuries, ultrasound is advised to be added to the routine clinical and neurophysiological evaluation. It is also advised to use ultrasound as a first-line imaging modality for tumors thought to be of nerve origin.

Complement 1q (C1q) antibodies levels in sera of Egyptian patients with lupus nephritis.

Renal involvement is common in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Anti-C1q antibodies are associated with SLE nephritis. This study attempted to correlate anti-C1q levels to different types of lupus nephritis (LN). Anti-C1q antibodies were assessed in two groups (15 subjects each) of SLE patients with and without LN. Ten apparently healthy volunteers served as controls. The sensitivity of anti C1q for diagnosis of lupus nephritis among SLE patients was 100.00% and the specificity reached 90.00%. The positive and negative predictive values for renal activity were 83.3% and 100.00%, with a predictive accuracy of 98.00%. The level of anti C1q was highest in patients with class IV lupus nephritis. We conclude that negative anti- C1q test results would exclude active nephritis in SLE. Our data support the hypothesis that anti-C1q antibodies may have pathogenic role in lupus nephritis.