Three-dimensional gait analysis can shed new light on walking in patients with haemophilia.

In patients with haemophilia (PWH) (from Greek "blood love"), the long-term consequences of repeated haemarthrosis include cartilage damage and irreversible arthropathy, resulting in severe impairments in locomotion. Quantifying the extent of joint damage is therefore important in order to prevent disease progression and compare the efficacy of treatment strategies. Musculoskeletal impairments in PWH may stem from structural and functional abnormalities, which have traditionally been evaluated radiologically or clinically.

Selective bilateral activation of leg muscles after cutaneous nerve stimulation during backward walking.

During human locomotion, cutaneous reflexes have been suggested to function to preserve balance. Specifically, cutaneous reflexes in the contralateral leg's muscles (with respect to the stimulus) were suggested to play an important role in maintaining stability during locomotor tasks where stability is threatened. We used backward walking (BW) as a paradigm to induce unstable gait and analyzed the cutaneous reflex activity in both ipsilateral and contralateral lower limb muscles after stimulation of the sural nerve at different phases of the gait cycle.

Similar muscles contribute to horizontal and vertical acceleration of center of mass in forward and backward walking: implications for neural control.

Leg kinematics during backward walking (BW) are very similar to the time-reversed kinematics during forward walking (FW). This suggests that the underlying muscle activation pattern could originate from a simple time reversal, as well. Experimental electromyography studies have confirmed that this is the case for some muscles.

Impact of ankle osteoarthritis on the energetics and mechanics of gait: the case of hemophilic arthropathy.

Background: Osteoarthritis may affect joints in any part of the body, including the ankle. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of ankle osteoarthritis on the energetics and mechanics of gait, while taking into account the effect of slower speed generally adopted by patients with osteoarthritis.

Methods: Using a motion analysis system, synchronous kinematic, kinetics, spatiotemporal, mechanics and metabolic gait parameters were measured in 10 patients diagnosed with ankle osteoarthritis consecutive to hemophilia.

Altered arm posture in children with cerebral palsy is related to instability during walking.

Background: Toddlers learning to walk adopt specific 'guard' arm postures to maintain their balance during forward progression. In Cerebral Palsy (CP), the cause of the altered arm postures during walking has not been studied.

Aim: To investigate whether the altered arm posture in children with CP is a compensation for instability during walking.

Arm swing during walking at different speeds in children with Cerebral Palsy and typically developing children.

Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) have difficulties walking at a normal or high speed. It is known that arm movements play an important role to achieve higher walking speeds in healthy subjects. However, the role played by arm movements while walking at different speeds has received no attention in children with CP.

Reducing the energy cost of hemiparetic gait using center of mass feedback: a pilot study.

Background: Hemiparetic gait following stroke requires substantial energy consumption, which would promote deconditioning and disability. Optimal modalities for decreasing this energy cost remain challenging. Excessive energy consumption, however, seems to be mainly due to extra positive muscle work to substantially lift the body's center of mass (CM) against gravity during the paretic limb swing.

The up and down bobbing of human walking: a compromise between muscle work and efficiency.

Human walking has a peculiar straight-legged style. Consequently, the body's centre of mass (CM) moves up and down with each step, which is noticeable in their up and down head bobbing while walking. This vertical CM movement enables humans to save energy via a pendulum-like mechanism but is probably a relatively recent locomotor innovation insofar as earliest bipeds may have walked flexed and flat.

Influence of equinus treatments on the vertical displacement of the body's centre of mass in children with cerebral palsy.

We assessed the influence of equinus gait treatments on the vertical displacement of the body's centre of mass (COM) in 21 patients with cerebral palsy (14 males, 7 females; mean age 8 y 9 mo [SD 2 y]; range 3 y 7 mo-17 y) presenting different topographical types (quadriplegia, n = 1; diplegia, n = 6; right hemiplegia, n = 6; and left hemiplegia, n = 8). Vertical COM displacement was computed from ground reaction forces, and lower limb kinematics was recorded simultaneously. Equinus gait was treated with non-operative treatments (i.

Influence of gait pattern on the body's centre of mass displacement in children with cerebral palsy.

We assessed the influence of digitigrade gait pattern, topographical types, severity of motor involvement, and locomotor experience on the body's centre of mass (COM) displacement during gait in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Three-dimensional COM displacements were computed from ground reaction forces in 51 independent digitigrade walkers (29 males, 22 females; mean age 10 years 6 months, SD 2 years 7 months, range 7 to 15 years). Results obtained from 10 participants without disabilities (five males, five females), in the same age range as the patients with CP, were used as a reference plantigrade group.