Abstract
Hemiplegia is a neurological disorder that is often detected in children with cerebral palsy. Although many studies have investigated muscular activity in hemiplegic legs, few EMG-based findings focused on unaffected limb. This study aimed to quantify the asymmetric behavior of lower-limb-muscle recruitment during walking in mild-hemiplegic children from surface-EMG and foot-floor contact features. sEMG signals from tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius lateralis and foot-floor contact data during walking were analyzed in 16 hemiplegic children classified as W1 according to Winter’ scale, and in 100 control children. Statistical gait analysis, a methodology achieving a statistical characterization of gait by averaging surface-EMG-based features, was performed. Results, achieved in hundreds of strides for each child, indicated that in the hemiplegic side with respect to the non-hemiplegic side, W1 children showed a statistically significant: decreased number of strides with normal foot-floor contact; decreased stance-phase length and initial-contact sub-phase; curtailed, less frequent TA activity in terminal swing and a lack of TA activity at heel-strike. The acknowledged impairment of anti-phase eccentric control of dorsiflexors was confirmed in the hemiplegic side, but not in the contralateral side. However, a modified foot-floor contact pattern is evinced also in the contralateral side, probably to make up for balance requirements.
Highlights
Hemiplegia is a neurological disorder that is frequently detected in children with cerebral palsy.It may provoke altered selective motor control, weakness, and spasticity [1]
Gait data from hemiplegic and control children were taken from retrospective studies performed at Laboratory of Gait Analysis, Ospedale Santa Croce, Moncalieri (TO), Italy [5,14]
The Laboratory database was searched for children aged 5 t o13 years with Winters’ group I hemiplegia
Summary
Hemiplegia is a neurological disorder that is frequently detected in children with cerebral palsy. It may provoke altered selective motor control, weakness, and spasticity [1]. The possibility of characterizing hemiplegic-child walking by features that are able to quantify asymmetries in lower-limb recruitment should be considered in order to describe control strategies and support clinicians and physical therapists in planning treatment approaches. From this point of view, a reliable classification of hemiplegia is fundamental [2]. An acknowledged classification was proposed by Winters et al [3] for analyzing the most frequent walking patterns in hemiplegic children and young
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