Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42218608›Full record

ArticleHand (New York, N.Y.)2026

An AI-Driven Pipeline for Localization, Segmentation, and Classification of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Using Ultrasound Images of the Median Nerve.

Rachel Hyzny, Charles J Patterson, Abhigyan Kishor, Nickolas Littlefield, Chinemerem Nwosu, Jacob Weinberg, Ahmad P Tafti, John R Fowler

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Article in Hand (New York, N.Y.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Rachel HyznyUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8194-6361
Charles J PattersonUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Abhigyan KishorUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Nickolas LittlefieldUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Chinemerem NwosuUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Jacob WeinbergUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Ahmad P TaftiUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
John R FowlerUniversity of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundCarpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), the most common peripheral neuropathy, is currently diagnosed by clinical suspicion supported by tools such as the CTS-6 questionnaire and ultrasound. While these tools are widely used and clinically valuable, diagnostic accuracy may vary based on examiner experience and technique. This study introduces a pilot artificial intelligence (AI)-driven ultrasound pipeline using YOLOv11 for localization, U-Net for segmentation, and ConvNeXt for classification to support CTS diagnosis.

methodsIn this observational cohort study, patients ≥18 years were screened for CTS from June 2023 to September 2024 by a board-certified hand surgeon using the CTS-6, and ultrasound images of the median nerve were obtained at the carpal tunnel inlet. One hundred twenty-one wrists (73 with CTS/48 without CTS) were used for model training and validation. The AI pipeline sequentially localized the median nerve (YOLOv11), segmented nerve boundaries (U-Net), and classified CTS status (ConvNeXt).

resultsThe ConvNeXt classification model achieved an accuracy of 94.1%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 0.86, and sensitivity of 1.0. The YOLOv11 localization model demonstrated PPV of 0.95 and sensitivity of 0.98. The U-Net segmentation model achieved a validation Intersection over Union (IoU) of 0.86.

conclusionsThis pilot study demonstrates that an AI-assisted ultrasound pipeline can achieve strong diagnostic performance for CTS. Future work with larger, multi-center datasets and enhanced model interpretability is warranted prior to clinical deployment.

Indexed as

artificial intelligencecarpal tunnel syndromediagnosismachine learningnerveultrasound

Identifiers

PMID42218608
PMCPMC13223071

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