Background: Plantar fasciitis, a common cause of heel pain . Ultrasound is a reliable diagnostic tool , but not all patients exhibit changes on ultrasound, making additional techniques necessary. Shear wave elastography can assess the mechanical properties of the plantar fascia and provides a quantitative measure of tissue stiffness.

Method: This is a case control study has been conducted on 30 patients clinically diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and 30 matched control healthy individual with no pain. It aimed to determine the added value of elastography to B-Mode ultrasound in the diagnosis of plantar fasciitis in comparison with healthy people.PF thickness and SWE stiffness elasticity were measured .

Results: SWE velocity and elasticity can significantly assess plantar fasciitis .there is negative correlation between plantar fascia thickness and both SWE velocity and elasticity .Mean SWV value in healthy subjects was 5.92 m/s and in patients 3.02 m/s with a mean stiffness value of 109.1 kPa and 49.35 kPa respectively (p < 0.001). For SWV a cut-off value of 4.1 m/s had a specificity of 100 % and sensitivity of 93.33%. For stiffness a cut-off value of 48.1 kPa had a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 76.67%.

Conclusion: Our study has proven that SWE improves the diagnostic accuracy compared to B-US and that the combination of SWE and B-US is a strong diagnostic tool in the detection of plantar fasciitis and may be helpful in diagnose early cases .

Keywords: Shear wave elastography (SWE); plantar fasciitis; SWV; AOFAS; FFI.