Quantitative Analysis of Gait Coordination Based on Gait Events in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

The objective of this study was to quantify gait coordination of the lower limbs in children with cerebral palsy (CP) based on gait events. The kinematic data of 50 children with typical development and 26 children with CP prerehabilitation and postrehabilitation were recorded. The hip and knee joint angles in the sagittal plane on both sides were obtained at six gait events. Then a gait coordination index (GCI) model was established based on the gait features extracted from the joint angles of the children with typical development using kernel-based principal component analysis, which was then used to calculate the GCI of children with CP. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare GCI and joint angles at each gait event. Intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated to evaluate the reliability of GCI in two trials separated by a day. GCI in children with CP postrehabilitation was significantly higher than that in the children with typical development (P < 0.05) but significantly lower than that in children with CP prerehabilitation (P < 0.05). There are significant differences in GCI for children with CP prerehabilitation between level I, level II, and level III (P < 0.05). The results of intraclass correlation coefficients (>0.8) indicated that the obtained GCIs were reliable. GCI can reflect gait coordination of lower limbs in children with CP and may be a useful tool for rehabilitation assessment.