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Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics

The use of quantitative methods to analyze the loss in gait smoothness, an increase in movement intermittency which is a distinguishing hallmark of motor deficits in stroke patients, has gained considerable attention in recent years. In the literature, the spectral arc length (SPARC), as well as met...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Germanotta, Marco, Iacovelli, Chiara, Aprile, Irene
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36294017
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013440
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author Germanotta, Marco
Iacovelli, Chiara
Aprile, Irene
author_facet Germanotta, Marco
Iacovelli, Chiara
Aprile, Irene
author_sort Germanotta, Marco
collection PubMed
description The use of quantitative methods to analyze the loss in gait smoothness, an increase in movement intermittency which is a distinguishing hallmark of motor deficits in stroke patients, has gained considerable attention in recent years. In the literature, the spectral arc length (SPARC), as well as metrics based on the measurement of the jerk, such as the log dimensionless jerk (LDLJ), are currently employed to assess smoothness. However, the optimal measure for evaluating the smoothness of walking in stroke patients remains unknown. Here, we investigated the smoothness of the body’s center of mass (BCoM) trajectory during gait, using an optoelectronic system, in twenty-two subacute and eight chronic patients before and after a two-month rehabilitation program. The two measures were evaluated for their discriminant validity (ability to differentiate the smoothness of the BCoM trajectory calculated on the cycle of the affected and unaffected limb, and between subacute and chronic patients), validity (correlation with clinical scales), and responsiveness to the intervention. According to our findings, the LDLJ outperformed the SPARC in terms of the examined qualities. Based on data gathered using an optoelectronic system, we recommend using the LDLJ rather than the SPARC to investigate the gait smoothness of stroke patients.
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spelling pubmed-96032992022-10-27 Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics Germanotta, Marco Iacovelli, Chiara Aprile, Irene Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The use of quantitative methods to analyze the loss in gait smoothness, an increase in movement intermittency which is a distinguishing hallmark of motor deficits in stroke patients, has gained considerable attention in recent years. In the literature, the spectral arc length (SPARC), as well as metrics based on the measurement of the jerk, such as the log dimensionless jerk (LDLJ), are currently employed to assess smoothness. However, the optimal measure for evaluating the smoothness of walking in stroke patients remains unknown. Here, we investigated the smoothness of the body’s center of mass (BCoM) trajectory during gait, using an optoelectronic system, in twenty-two subacute and eight chronic patients before and after a two-month rehabilitation program. The two measures were evaluated for their discriminant validity (ability to differentiate the smoothness of the BCoM trajectory calculated on the cycle of the affected and unaffected limb, and between subacute and chronic patients), validity (correlation with clinical scales), and responsiveness to the intervention. According to our findings, the LDLJ outperformed the SPARC in terms of the examined qualities. Based on data gathered using an optoelectronic system, we recommend using the LDLJ rather than the SPARC to investigate the gait smoothness of stroke patients. MDPI 2022-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9603299/ /pubmed/36294017 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013440 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Germanotta, Marco
Iacovelli, Chiara
Aprile, Irene
Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title_full Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title_fullStr Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title_short Evaluation of Gait Smoothness in Patients with Stroke Undergoing Rehabilitation: Comparison between Two Metrics
title_sort evaluation of gait smoothness in patients with stroke undergoing rehabilitation: comparison between two metrics
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36294017
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013440
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