Fractal dynamics of body motion in post-stroke hemiplegic patients during walking

Abstract

In this paper, we quantify the complexity of body motion during walking in post-stroke hemiplegic patients. The body motion of patients and healthy elderly subjects was measured by using the accelerometry technique. The complexity of body motion was quantified using the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE-) based fractal analysis methods. Our results suggest that the fractal dimensions of the body motion in post-stroke hemiplegic patients at several Brunnstrom stages were significantly higher than those of healthy elderly subjects (p < 0.05). However, in the hemiplegic patients, the fractal dimensions were more related to Brunnstrom stages.