Plantar heel pain is common in sports medicine and orthopedics; it is usually diagnosed as plantar fasciitis. We report the case of a 43-year-old healthy man with chronic pain over the right heel for 5 years. He was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and received conservative treatment. Surgery was recommended for the intractable pain, which he refused. He had tenderness in the medial calcaneal tubercle region and midportion of soleus muscle near the tendinous arch. At a tibial nerve entrapment point (NEP) over the tender soleus, 4-mL isotonic saline was injected at presentation and 1, 3, and 6 weeks later. The pain improved significantly. He had no adverse effects or aggravation of symptoms at 6 months later. The injection therapy at NEP of the soleus can be considered in chronic unhealed plantar heel pain, including plantar fasciitis, to release the entrapped tibial nerve.

Flank pain is a common reason for visits to the emergency room. The most common reason warranting hospital visits are urology-related problems. However, there are many other causes, such as musculoskeletal lesions, that difficult to achieve a correct diagnosis. Here, we describe a rare case of flank pain caused by thoracolumbar junction syndrome, accompanying renal artery stenosis. A 54-year-old male with hypertension presented with severe left flank pain for 1 week. Initially, he was diagnosed with left renal artery stenosis by computed tomography and decreased renal function on renal scan (Tc-99m DTPA). Although a stent was inserted into the left renal artery, flank pain persisted with only minor improvement. Through detailed physical examination, he was finally diagnosed with thoracolumbar junction syndrome. After three injections in the left deep paravertebral muscles at the T10–T12 levels, flank pain completely ceased. Clinicians must consider thoracolumbar junction syndrome, when treating patients with flank pain.

BACKGROUNDConventional ultrasonography or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is commonly performed to obtain information about the severity of the disease, location of the injury, and differential diagnosis. The aim of this research was to investigate the diagnostic confidence of sonoelastography as an adjunct to greyscale ultrasonography in lateral elbow tendinopathy.

METHODSA single experienced physiatrist performed greyscale ultrasonography and sonoelastography in 28 patients (9 men, 19 women; mean age, 48.5 years; age range, 36-67 years) with unilateral symptoms of lateral elbow tendinopathy; the asymptomatic elbows were used as controls. Greyscale images were described as normal, tendinosis, partial-thickness tear, and full-thickness tear. Sonoelastographic images of the common extensor tendon were analyzed qualitatively (scoring of the elastic spectrum) and quantitatively (based on a color histogram).

RESULTSBoth the imaging methods had high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for diagnosing lateral elbow tendinopathy. Considering the clinical diagnosis of lateral elbow tendinopathy, sonoelastography showed significantly higher diagnostic accuracy (96.4%) than ultrasonography (89.5%, P < 0.01). Quantitative analysis showed objective interpretation of the sonoelastographic images that revealed greater intensity of green and blue pixels in symptomatic elbows (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSonoelastography increases diagnostic confidence in tennis elbow pathology over greyscale ultrasonography alone and may be an additional powerful diagnostic tool in cases of lateral elbow tendinopathy with inconclusive greyscale ultrasonographic findings.

Adult ; Aged ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; methods ; Elbow ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tendinopathy ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; Tendons ; pathology ; Tennis Elbow ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging