The sensitivity and specificity of an activity monitor in detecting functional activities in young people with cerebral palsy.

Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the Intelligent Device for Energy Expenditure and Activity (IDEEA) monitor in detecting functional activities in young people with cerebral palsy (CP).

Design: Validation study.

Setting: Two identical data collections completed 1 week apart at a gait laboratory.

Criterion validity of the StepWatch Activity Monitor as a measure of walking activity in patients after stroke.

Objectives: To test the validity of the StepWatch Activity Monitor (SAM) in subjects with stroke against 2 criterion standards, 3-dimensional gait analysis (3-DGA) and footswitches in a variety of indoor and outdoor walking conditions, including different speeds and different terrains, and to test the accuracy of the SAM when worn on the paretic limb.

Design: Criterion standard validation study.

Setting: Gait laboratory and outside course.

Deficits in upper-limb task performance in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy as defined by 3-dimensional kinematics.

Objective: To define upper-limb movement deficits in children with hemiplegia using 3-dimensional (3-D) kinematic analysis of functional tasks.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: University gait laboratory.

Reliability of upper and lower limb three-dimensional kinematics in children with hemiplegia.

The repeatability of both 3D kinematic measurements of arm movement during simple upper limb tasks and lower limb movement during gait analysis was evaluated in 10 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. All tasks were completed on two separate occasions, 1 week apart. The 3D lower limb gait analysis showed high levels of repeatability in the sagittal plane measures, with mean coefficient of multiple correlations (CMCs) greater than 0.

Intraobserver reliability of the modified Tardieu scale in the upper limb of children with hemiplegia.

This study investigated the reliability of the modified Tardieu scale in the assessment of biceps spasticity in the upper limbs of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). Ten children, with hemiplegic CP participated in the study: six males (mean age 9 years, SD 4 years) and four females (mean age 12 years, SD 3 years). Blinded, duplicate measures of dynamic elbow extension were performed on the hemiplegic arm at time 0 and 7 days later, using the three angular velocities described in the Tardieu scale (V1, slow; V2, speed of gravity; V3, as fast as possible).

Treatment for idiopathic toe-walking: results at skeletal maturity.

Thirteen skeletally mature subjects who had been treated as children for idiopathic toe-walking underwent gait analysis and calf muscle strength testing at an average of 10.8 years from the last intervention. Six had had serial casting only; seven had had either a percutaneous tendo Achilles lengthening or a Baker's gastroc-soleus lengthening.

Reliability and validity of the Observational Gait Scale in children with spastic diplegia.

The aim of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of visual gait assessment in children with spastic diplegia, who were community or household ambulators, using a modified version of the Physicians Rating Scale, known as the Observational Gait Scale (OGS). Two clinicians viewed edited split-screen video recordings of 20 children/adolescents (11 males, 9 females; mean age 12 years, range 6 to 21 years) made at the time of three-dimensional gait analysis (3-DGA). Walking ability in each child was scored at initial assessment and reassessed from the same videos three months later using the first seven sections of the OGS.