Gait analysis of hemiplegic patients by measurement of ground reaction force.

Ground reaction force during walking was measured and analyzed in 58 patients who had been hemiplegic for more than 6 months. Utilizing the impulse (area between a component curve and the baseline) as an assessment value, several parameters were selected to represent the characteristics of each component curve (vertical, fore-aft and lateral) of the ground reaction force, and correlated with the degree of motor recovery in the patients. As a result, a high correlation was found between these parameters and the degree of motor recovery, indicating that ground reaction force well reflects the degree of motor recovery, which is highly correlated with the gait ability of hemiplegic patients. This evaluation method would also be very helpful for objective and quantitative estimation of the gait of hemiplegic patients.