Odanye Oluwaseye, Harrington Joseph, Likens Aaron, Kingston David, Knarr Brian
Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska Omaha, 6001 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2025 May 20;25(10):3220. doi: 10.3390/s25103220.
This block-randomized crossover study investigated how a speed-modulated aquatic treadmill (AT) impacts the walking biomechanics of pediatric gait. Eight cerebral palsy (CP) and fifteen typically developing (TD) children walked at normal, slow, and fast treadmill speeds in AT and dry treadmill (DT) conditions. The joint angles of participants were calculated from inertial measurement units to derive sample entropy (SE) measures that quantified the regularity or complexity of motion. A hierarchical statistical model revealed that the CP group had lower SE values for the hip, knee, and ankle joints in the AT and at slower than faster treadmill speeds. Only the SE values of the knee and ankle joints were impacted for the TD group. The lower SE values suggest improved regularity for participants at slower speeds and in the AT environment. This study highlights the potential of AT to improve the walking biomechanics of children with CP in acute exposure, but further work is needed to investigate the AT condition as a gait rehabilitation environment.
这项分组随机交叉研究调查了速度调节式水上跑步机（AT）如何影响小儿步态的行走生物力学。八名脑性瘫痪（CP）儿童和十五名发育正常（TD）的儿童在AT和干式跑步机（DT）条件下，以正常、慢速和快速跑步机速度行走。通过惯性测量单元计算参与者的关节角度，以得出样本熵（SE）测量值，该测量值量化了运动的规律性或复杂性。分层统计模型显示，CP组在AT中以及跑步机速度较慢时比速度较快时，髋关节、膝关节和踝关节的SE值较低。TD组仅膝关节和踝关节的SE值受到影响。较低的SE值表明参与者在较慢速度和AT环境中的规律性有所改善。这项研究突出了AT在急性暴露时改善CP儿童行走生物力学的潜力，但需要进一步开展工作来研究将AT条件作为步态康复环境的情况。
