Background: Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of chronic heel pain in adults. Plantar fasciitis is caused by biomechanical overuse from prolonged standing or running.
Purpose: To compare the plantar fascia thickness and compressibility index of symptomatic foot and asymptomatic foot with sonography in patients diagnosed with unilateral plantar fasciitis. To document the consistent sonological findings in patients with clinically diagnosed plantar fasciitis.
Methods: 60 Patients who were diagnosed clinically with plantar fasciitis of single heel were taken in the study. A lateral radiograph of the involved heel, blood tests, body mass index in kg/m2 were analyzed and subjected to sonography of bilateral heel to check the plantar fascia thickness, heel pad thickness, and compressibility index.
Results: In our study, sonologically mean plantar fascia thickness on the symptomatic side was 4.03 mm and on the asymptomatic side, it was 2.78 mm. P value (0.001) was statistically significant therefore increased the thickness of fascia is associated with plantar fasciitis. Most common ultra-sonographic feature observed in our study was increased plantar fascia thickness and hypoechoic changes compared to the opposite heel.
Conclusion: Sonography of bilateral heel could be used as an initial imaging modality for the investigation of plantar fasciitis. As it can help in assessing the plantar fascia thickness and texture of the plantar fascia which cannot be assessed on X-rays which is the common modality of investigation for this condition. Increased plantar fascia thickness and hypoechogenicity are a consistent ultra-sonographic finding of plantar fasciitis. There is a negative correlation between plantar fascia thickness, heel pad thickness and also compressibility index in assessing the severity of plantar fasciitis.
