Abstract
Ambulation is a fundamental requirement of human beings for enjoying healthy community life. A neurological disorder such as stroke can significantly affect one's gait thereby restricting one's active community participation. To quantify one's gait, spatiotemporal gait parameters are widely used in clinical context with different tests such as 10 meter walk test, 6 min walk test, etc. Though these conventional observation-based methods are powerful, yet they often suffer from subjectivity, a scarcity of adequately trained therapists and frequent clinical visits for assessment. Researchers have been exploring the technology-assisted solutions for gait characterization. There are laboratory-based stereophotogrammetric methods and walk mats that are powerful tools as far as gait characterization is concerned. However, these suffer from issues with portability, accessibility due to high cost, labor-intensiveness, etc. Faced with these issues, our present research tries to investigate and quantify the gait abnormalities in individuals with neurological disorder by using a portable and cost-effective instrumented shoes (ShoesFSR henceforth). The in-house developed ShoesFSR comprised of a pair of shoes instrumented with Force Sensing Resistors (FSR) and a wireless data acquisition unit. The real-time FSR data was acquired wirelessly and analyzed by a central console to offer quantitative indices of one's gait. Studies were conducted with 15 healthy participants and 9 post-stroke survivors. The spatiotemporal gait parameters of healthy participants measured using ShoesFSR were validated with standard methods such as stereophotogrammetric system and paper-based setup. Statistical analysis showed good agreement between the gait parameters measured using ShoesFSR and the standard methods. Specifically, the mean absolute error of the spatial parameters measured by the ShoesFSR, in the worst case, was 1.24% and that for the temporal parameters was 1.12% with that measured by standard methods for healthy gait. This research shows the potential of the ShoesFSR to quantify gait abnormality of post-stroke hemiplegic patients. In turn, the results show a promise for the future clinical use of the ShoesFSR.
Highlights
Reports from World Health Organization suggest that every year ∼15 million people suffer from stroke globally (Rodrigo et al, 2013)
The group average of gait parameters measured by ShoesFSR and the paper-based setup closely matched with % absolute error being 1.58 and 0.15%, respectively for GF2; and 0.82 and 1.48%, respectively for GF4 as far as the LegL and LegR
In Stage 1, temporal gait parameters measured using ShoesFSR were validated with that measured using VICON system for healthy individuals
Summary
Reports from World Health Organization suggest that every year ∼15 million people suffer from stroke globally (Rodrigo et al, 2013). Movement disorders associated with such conditions can jeopardize one’s independence to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Deficits in balance and gait disorder are common in individuals with hemiplegic stroke. Literature shows that the weight-bearing capacity of the paretic lower limb of a post-stroke survivor can be reduced by up to 43%. These patients are often prone to falls with subsequent injuries during over-ground walk (Hagell et al, 1999; Wolfson, 2001). Researchers have reported that there exists a link between one’s gait (defined as a manner of walking) characteristics and different clinical conditions such as, foot inversion, flat foot, etc. Characterization of one’s gait is important since it can be useful in monitoring any improvement in one’s gait performance and functional recovery post-stroke due to rehabilitation (Von Schroeder et al, 1995; Alexander, 1996)
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