Myofascial Release in Patients With Plantar Fasciitis

Short-term Effects of a Myofascial Release on Elasticity in Patients With Plantar Fasciitis: A Pre-post Evaluation With Sonoelastography

Background: Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain in runners. No studies have described the short-term effects of myofascial release on plantar fasciitis using ultrasound.

Objectives: To describe the immediate sonoelastographic changes in the plantar fascia of amateur runners with fasciitis after applying a myofascial release technique.

Design: A single-centre, experimental and controlled study.

Method: Patients with plantar fasciitis and a group of healthy subjects will be examined using B-mode and real time sonoelastography scanning. Fascia thickness, echointensity and echovariation of the color histogram will be analyzed pre- and post intervention. A two-way (Group × Time) repeated measures ANOVA will be performed.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Plantar Fasciitis
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: Myofascial Release Technique

Detailed Description

Participants

Subjects of the plantar fasciitis group (PFG) will be recruited in May2018 to apply to them a myofascial release technique.

Healthy volunteers without a history of plantar fascia disease will be recruited as control group (CG).

The examination will be included B-mode scanning and real time sonoelastography using an US scanner with linear array transducer (ML6-15). All examinations will be conducted by a sonographer with more than 10 years' experience in musculoskeletal imaging.

Using a standardized protocol three images of every pre-post intervention video will be stored uncompressed and with no losses in bitmap format (bmp), and the mean value of the histogram components will be used for statistical analysis. The examination protocol shows good reliability, and has been reported previously.

ImageJ 1.45 software will be used to perform quantitative analysis of gray-scale images and the color histogram of the elastogram.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 62
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Murcia, Spain, 30107
    • María Elena del Baño Aledo

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• heel pain at the proximal fascia insertion
• worse pain when waking up in the morning or after a period of rest
• a visual analog score (VAS) of more than 4 on a scale of 10

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who had undergone surgery or steroid injections to the heel will be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: plantar fasciitis group; Myofascial release technique	Procedure: Myofascial Release Technique; The same described in the arm description
No Intervention: control group; None of the control group received the treatment

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in thickness of the plantar fascia	Measured from the anterior edge of the inferior calcaneal border vertically to the inferior border of the plantar fascia	Measured twice. pre and post treatment. Post treatment examination will be carried out 10 minutes after the intervention concludes.
Changes in echointensity	The EI of the color histogram computed the mean value of intensity of red, green and blue channels (color intensity range, 0-255) within a given area	Measured twice. pre and post treatment. Post treatment examination will be carried out 10 minutes after the intervention concludes.
Changes in Echovariation	Determined as the relation between standard deviation and mean of pixel intensity obtained from the histogram	Measured twice. pre and post treatment. Post treatment examination will be carried out 10 minutes after the intervention concludes.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universidad de Murcia
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Maria Elena del Baño-Aledo, Dr, Universidad de Murcia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 2, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 30, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): June 16, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 19, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 23, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): April 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 21, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 19, 2018
• Last Verified: June 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: physical therapy; sonoelastography; Plantar Fasciitis
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Foot Diseases; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Fasciitis; Fasciitis, Plantar
• Other Study ID Numbers: Sono2018

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No