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Specialists use ultrasound more efficiently to diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome
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Specialists are more cost-effective than general practitioners in using ultrasound as a confirmatory test to diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome, according to this study.
“The use of diagnostic ultrasound as a first-line test for confirmation of a clinical diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome is a more cost-effective strategy in the specialist population and results in improved false-negative rates in the general population despite increased cost,” John R. Fowler, MD, and colleagues stated in the study abstract.
Fowler and colleagues compared whether using ultrasound as a first-line test is more effective than using electrodiagnostic (EDX) testing or ultrasound alone in both specialists and general practitioners, according to the abstract. They created a fictional patient group and assigned each patient a random true-positive, true-negative, false-positive and false-negative ultrasound and EDX test.
Average charges for specialists included $400.30 for an initial ultrasound and $428.30 for EDX alone, while for general practitioners, the cost was an average of $562.90 for an ultrasound per patient followed by $369.50 per patient for EDX, according to the abstract.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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