Abstract
ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was the construction of a new semi-automated experimental setup for the evaluation of the stiffness of ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) around an axis aligned to the anatomical ankle joint during the second rocker of the gait. The setup, developed in close collaboration with the orthopedic device company V!GO NV (Wetteren, Belgium), allows measurement of plantarflexion and dorsiflexion in the sagittal plane for a maximal range of motion of 50° (− 25° plantarflexion up to 25° dorsiflexion) in a non-destructive way.ResultsThe mechanical properties of four 3D printed AFOs are investigated, based on the ranges of motion derived from the gait assessment of the patients when they walked with their AFO. The reliability of the stiffness measures was studied by the evaluation of the test–retest repeatability and the intra-tester and inter-tester variability. These studies revealed that the ankle stiffness can be measured with high reliability (ICC = 0.94–1.00). The obtained outcomes indicate that the experimental setup could be applied to measure the ankle stiffness of any topology of AFOs and, in the future, help finding the correlation with the information coming from the gait assessment of the patients.
Highlights
Ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) are external medical devices, applied around the ankle joint, to provide support and stability for weakened muscles, proper control of the limbs and protection [1–3]
The aim of this study is to describe the design and the application of a new semi-automated experimental setup which evaluates the stiffness of AFOs in a reliable non-destructive way, around an axis aligned with the anatomical ankle joint during the second rocker of the gait
The results of the experimental tests on the inox steel sheet coming from the experimental setup and the Instron testing machine showed comparable outcomes with differences due to the different clamping conditions (Additional file 5)
Summary
The results of the experimental tests on the inox steel sheet coming from the experimental setup and the Instron testing machine showed comparable outcomes with differences due to the different clamping conditions (Additional file 5). In terms of the statistical analysis, the test–retest repeatability reveals that the maximal percentage difference is never higher than 2% (Additional file 6). Concerning the intra-tester analysis, the percentage difference is not higher than 5.26% (Additional file 7), while for the inter-tester variability the error is not higher than 5.65% (Additional file 8). The calculation of the ICC (Table 1) shows high reliability with values ranging from 0.94 to 1. The SEM expresses relatively low values of measurement error, while, the SDD provides the system discrimination
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