Gait measurements in hemiplegic children: An automatic analysis of foot-floor contact sequences and electromyographic patterns

Instrumented gait analysis is widely used in the assessment of many orthopedic and neurological diseases. The study of the foot-floor contact and muscle activity during gait is fundamental in the management of hemiplegic children. In order to obtain reliable results, it is important that gait signals are recorded during long intervals of walking (2-3 minutes). This requires an automatic analysis of the gait cycles. Using “statistical gait analysis” we obtained the different patterns of foot-floor contact observed in hemiplegic children and measured the duration of the gait phases. Furthermore, we obtained the muscle activation timing for each specific foot-floor contact sequence and each specific muscle activation pattern, in a userindependent way.