Gait & posture
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The objective of this study was to investigate the association between step variability, muscle strength and functional walking performance in children post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) and typically developed (TD) children. A convenience sample of 16 children post-TBI and 16 TD age and sex matched controls participated in this cross sectional study. The main outcome measures included step length and step time variability, measured with an electronic walkway, strength of four lower-extremity muscle groups, tested bilaterally with a hand held dynamometer, walking performance as assessed by the 2-min walk test, energy expenditure index (EEI) and rating of perceived exertion (OMNI scale). ⋯ TD children had significantly higher mean strength values than children post-TBI in the knee extensor and hip abductor muscle groups (p<0.05). The 2-min walk test correlated inversely with the step time and length variability only among children post-TBI while muscle strength values correlated positively with the 2-min walk test only in TD children. This study found that step time and length variability and lower-extremity muscle strength correlated differently to distance covered during the 2-min walk test among children post-TBI and among TD children.
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This study developed an objective graphical classification method of spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (CP) gait patterns based on principal component analysis (PCA). Gait analyses of 20 healthy and 20 spastic diplegic CP children were examined to define gait characteristics. PCA was used to reduce the dimensionality of 27 parameters (26 selected kinematics variables and age of the children) for the 40 subjects in order to identify the dominant variability in the data. ⋯ Results indicated that only the healthy children formed a distinct cluster; however it was possible to recognise gait patterns in overlapping clusters in children with spastic diplegia. This study demonstrates that it is possible to quantitatively classify gait types in CP using PCA. Graphical classification of gait types could assist in clinical evaluation of the children and serve as a validation of clinical reports as well as aid treatment planning.