Linking clinical measurements and kinematic gait patterns of toe-walking using fuzzy decision trees.

Toe-walking is one of the most prevalent gait deviations and has been linked to many diseases. Three major ankle kinematic patterns have been identified in toe-walkers, but the relationships between the causes of toe-walking and these patterns remain unknown. This study aims to identify these relationships.

Identification and classification of toe-walkers based on ankle kinematics, using a data-mining method.

A database of 1,736 patients and 2,511 gait analyses was reviewed to identify for trials where the first rocker was absent. A fuzzy c-means algorithm was used to identify sagittal ankle kinematic patterns and three groups were identified. The first showed a progressive dorsiflexion during the stance phase, while the second had a short-lived dorsiflexion, followed by a progressive plantarflexion.

A comparison of gait in spinal muscular atrophy, type II and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

This study investigated and compared the gait of two patients with spinal muscular atrophy, type II (SMA II) and two patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). These diseases cause a progressive and proximal to distal muscular weakness resulting in the loss of ambulation. The DMD cases had comparable muscle weakness with the SMA II cases on manual muscle testing and patients were assessed using kinematics, kinetics, electromyography and video analysis.