Autoimmune disorders may up risk for carpal tunnel syndrome

(HealthDay)—Common autoimmune disorders are associated with an increased risk for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, held from Feb. 19 to 23 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Po-Cheng Hsu, M.D., from Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues used data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2015 from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to examine the correlation between CTS and common autoimmune disorders (autoimmune rheumatic disease [ARD] and inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]).

The researchers identified 3,291 ARD and IBD patients who were compared to a control group. Patients with Crohn disease had the highest incidence of CTS (8.8 percent), followed by scleroderma and rheumatic arthritis. In the control group, the incidence for CTS was 4.8 percent. After adjustment for age and sex, the hazard ratio for developing CTS was significantly increased for Sjögren syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis (1.44 and 1.41, respectively). The overall surgical rate was 0.2 and 0.3 percent in ARD and IBD patients and controls, respectively.

"Carpal tunnel syndrome is a disease that may affect health-related quality of life," Hsu said in a statement. "Early diagnosis when managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren syndrome with adequate early health education and treatment could decrease the influence of CTS."

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