Good question, the only time it would make much of a difference would be if it was a suspected stress fracture. That said, it’s pretty rare that a stress fracture in the calcaneus would be from running / the same etiology as a true plantar fasciiopathy. What I see a lot clinically is that people will get an X-ray that shows “calcification” or a “bone spur” then get concerned that it won’t get better with removing it- that is definitely not the case, as it becomes asymptomatic like the majority of the other calcific tendinopathies we see. MRI or ultrasounds don’t usually help to guide the treatment since we’ll end up doing the same progressive loading anyway, they just may rule out other insidious pathology.
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