Identification of gait events in children with spastic cerebral palsy: comparison between the force plate and algorithms.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the gait event identification of five algorithms recommended in the literature with those provided by force plate (gold standard) in children with unilateral or bilateral spastic cerebral palsy (SCP).

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study of the gait of three girls and four boys with a mean age of 8.6±4.7 years. Four children had unilateral SCP with an equinus gait pattern, and the remaining three children exhibited bilateral SCP with a slide/drag gait pattern. Kinematic and kinetic gait data were collected during barefoot walking at a comfortable speed. From a total of 202 steps, the detection of 202 foot-strike (FS) and 194 toe-off (TO) events by each algorithm was compared with the detection of these same events by the force plate. The error between the events detected by the algorithms and those detected by the force plate was determined in milliseconds. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare the errors among the algorithms.

RESULTS

The algorithm reported by Ghoussayni et al. showed the best performance in all situations, except for the identification of FS events on the unaffected side in children with unilateral SCP. For these events, the algorithms reported by Desailly et al. and Zeni et al. showed the best performance.

CONCLUSION

Ghoussayni et al.'s algorithm can be used to detect gait events in children with SCP when a force plate is not available.