Article

Comparing plantar pressure measurements (PPM) of a patient following an
intervention or between a reference group and a patient-group is common practice
in clinical gait analysis. However, this process is often time consuming and
complex, and commercially available software often lacks powerful visualization
and interpretation tools. In this paper, we propose a simple method for
displaying pixel-level PPM deviations relative to a so-called reference PPM
pattern. The novel method contains 3 distinct stages: (1) a normalization of
pedobarographic fields (for foot length and width), (2) a pixel-level z-score
based calculation and, (3) color coding of the normalized pedobarographic fields.
The methodological steps associated to this novel method are precisely described
and clinical output illustrated. We believe that the advantages of the novel
method cover several domains. The strongest advantage of the novel method is that
it provides a straightforward visual interpretation of PPM without decreasing the
resolution perspective. A second advantage is that it may guide the selection of
a local mapping technique (data reduction technique). Finally, it may be easily
used as education tool during the therapist-patient interaction.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS