Article

Stability during gait is maintained through control of the center of mass (CoM)
position and velocity in relation to the base of support (BoS). The dynamic
stability margin, or the interaction of the extrapolated center of mass with the
closest boundary of the BoS, can reveal possible control errors during gait. The
purpose of this study was to investigate a marker based method for defining the
BoS, and compare the dynamic stability margin throughout gait in comparison to a
BoS defined from foot pressure sensors. The root mean squared difference between
these two methodologies ranged from 0.9 cm to 3.5 cm, when walking under four
conditions: plantigrade, equinus, everted, and inverted. As the stability margin
approaches -35 cm prior to contralateral heel strike, there was approximately 90%
agreement between the two systems at this time point. Underestimation of the
marker based dynamic stability margin or overestimation of the pressure based
dynamic stability margin was due to inaccuracies in defining the medial boundary
of the BoS. Overall, care must be taken to ensure similar definitions of the BoS
are utilized when comparing the dynamic stability margin between participants and
gait conditions.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS