Plantar Fasciitis (PF) is a common musculoskeletal cause of heel pain that affects around 10% of the population. Although, diagnosis is historically based on clinical examination, there are no agreed criteria for the clinical diagnosis of PF. The most common clinical criteria used include medial heel pain of ³6 weeks, pain worsened with weightbearing, particularly after inactivity and pain on palpation of the medial heel. If clinical assessment was found to have high diagnostic accuracy, this would negate the need for imaging to assist in the PF diagnosis. The aim of this study is firstly determine the diagnostic accuracy of clinical assessment in the diagnosis of PF. The second aim is to identify the most common clinical signs and symptoms associated with PF based on self-report and physical examination.
A cross-sectional study will be undertaken. Patients with medial heel pain will be recruited from musculoskeletal clinics in Beaumont hospital. Ethical approval will be sought from Beaumont hospital research ethics committee. Following receipt of written, informed consent, patients will attend for a one-off clinical examination. Ultrasound will be conducted by a clinician blinded to the clinical examination results. Diagnostic accuracy statistics such as sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios will be calculated.
