Burnett School of Medicine Student Research Validates Diagnostic Tool for Foot Drop
Mitchel Hawley, MS4, and Thien An Nguyen, MS2, at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University Received First Place For Their Medical Research Poster Presentation at the Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons Annual Meeting.
FORT WORTH – Something as simple as lifting your foot could dramatically impact your quality of life if there’s any pain involved.
A little known medical condition called foot drop, or drop foot, is having difficulty lifting the front part of the foot, according to the Mayo Clinic. If you have foot drop, the front of your foot may drag on the ground when you walk leading to risks of falling, chronic fatigue, and pain.
“If left untreated or misdiagnosed it can spiral into more injuries and long-term mobility issues,”said Mitchel Hawley, MS4 at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. “That’s why early and accurate diagnosis matters so much.”
Hawley and Thien An Nguyen, MS2, at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, have conducted research that has validated a novel, low-cost diagnostic tool called the “Phoenix Sign.” The tool could provide early insight for patients dealing with foot drop. The students’ poster presentation of the research won first place at the Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons (AENS) Annual Meeting.
“This tool bridges a critical gap in diagnosing foot drop,” Nguyen said. “It gives us a clearer path toward deciding who will genuinely benefit from surgical decompression.”
It offers a promising path for determining which patients will benefit from corrective surgery, said Richard Adams, D.P.M., Assistant Professor of Podiatric Medicine at the Burnett School of Medicine, who mentored the students on the research project.
“As a preliminary validation study their work highlights its value and potential to reveal reversible neural ischemia and accurately predict which patients will benefit from surgical decompression even when classical electrodiagnostic studies are unclear,” said Michael Bernas, Director of Scholarly Pursuit & Thesis (SPT) at Burnett School of Medicine.