Fractal dynamics of body motion during walking in poststroke hemiplegic patients

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the complexity of body motion during walking in poststroke hemiplegic patients. The body motion of patients and healthy elderly subjects was measured by using the accelerometry technique. Assessment of the complexity of body motion was performed by maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) based fractal analysis methods. Our results suggest that the fractal dimensions of the body motion in poststroke hemiplegic patients at several Brunnstrom stages were higher than those of healthy elderly subjects. However, in the hemiplegic patients, the fractal dimensions were related to Brunnstrom stages.