Plantar fasciitis (fasciosis) treatment outcome study: plantar fascia thickness measured by ultrasound and correlated with patient self-reported improvement.

Ultrasound, well recognized as an effective diagnostic tool, reveals a thickening of the plantar fascia in patients with plantar fasciitis/fasciosis disease. The authors hypothesized that ultrasound would also reveal a decrease in the plantar fascia thickness for patients undergoing treatment for the disease, a hypothesis that, heretofore, had been only tested on a limited number of subjects. They conducted a more statistically significant study that found that clinical treatment with injection and biomechanical correction does indeed diminish plantar fascia thickness as shown on ultrasound. The study also revealed that patients experience the most heightened plantar fascia tenderness toward the end of the day, and improvement in their symptomatic complaints were associated with a reduction in plantar fascia thickness. As a result, the authors conclude that office-based ultrasound can help diagnose and confirm plantar fasciitis/fasciosis through the measurement of the plantar fascia thickness. Because of the advantages of ultrasound--that it is non-invasive with greater patient acceptance, cost effective and radiation-free--the imaging tool should be considered and implemented early in the diagnosis and treatment of plantar fasciitis/fasciosis.