Should I Stay or Should I Go? A Prospective, Blinded Study Comparing the Diagnostic Capability of Dynamic and Stationary Pedobarography in Plantar Fasciitis.

The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic capability of a dynamic gait analysis insole and compare its ability to detect clinical correlations to a common stationary analysis tool. Twenty-five patients with chronic plantar fasciitis were included in this prospective, blinded, diagnostic study. Conventional, stationary gait analysis on a force plate on an even surface and continuous dynamic pedobarography on a standardized course consisting of different gait tasks were performed and correlated to the disease severity. Mean patient age was 53.6 (range 41 to 68) years, with a mean pain level of 6.1 (range 4 to 10) on the Visual Analogue Scale and a calcaneodynia score of 48.7 (range 33 to 66). Significant correlations were seen between several dynamic gait values and clinical scoring: cadence (rs  = 0.56, p = .004), stance time (rs  = -0.6, p = .002), center-of-pressure velocity (rs  = 0.44, p = .046), and double support time (rs  = 0.42, p = .042). No significant correlations were seen between any force plate gait analysis values and clinical scoring. In this study setting, dynamic gait analysis was able to identify clinically relevant correlations to plantar fasciitis disease severity that standard force plate measurements could not.