Heel Pad Stiffness in Plantar Heel Pain by Shear Wave Elastography

The goal of the study was to evaluate the reliability of supersonic shear wave elastography in measuring heel pad stiffness and the change in heel pad stiffness in patients with plantar heel pain. In the reliability test involving 12 normal participants, each heel pad was tested six times in succession, and adequate reliability was reflected in the intraclass correlation coefficients (0.95, 0.93 and 0.96 for the microchambers, macrochambers and bulk heel pad, respectively). In the clinical assessment involving 20 normal participants and 16 unilateral plantar heel pain patients, diseased heel pads (86.8 ± 22.9, 36.8 ± 7.7 and 46.6 ± 10.9 kPa for the microchambers, macrochambers and bulk heel pad, respectively) were significantly stiffer than unaffected heel pads (66.8 ± 14.1, 25.2 ± 5.7, 34.2 ± 6.6 kPa) and those of normal participants (60.9 ± 11.4, 26.3 ± 6.1, 31.8 ± 6.3 kPa), suggesting that the heel pad with plantar heel pain was associated with loss of elasticity.