[Integrated gait analysis for future routine clinical use].

Abstract

To describe the phenomenon of human movement by means of kinematic and kinetic measurements in a more objective manner, so-called integrated gait analysis systems have been developed. Although the commercially available equipment has already reached high technical levels, it does not play an important role in routine clinical applications. Due to this fact, the main arguments of the practitioners still address the practicability of the devices as well as the lack of meaningful software support for data assessment. The former concern has led to the integration of two KISTLER platforms beneath a treadmill belt in order to continuously capture 3D ground reaction force data. The latter one has prompted the development of an additional software kit, which statistically preprocesses the raw data set for further computations and which should prospectively allow a detailed analysis with artificial intelligence techniques. This new software becomes even more meaningful from the practitioner's point of view, because it may also be used as a stand alone unit for a preliminary assessment of gait patterns. The first part deals with the design of integrating two KISTLER platforms beneath the treadmill belt. A description of the analysis software follows, which removes noise, especially the influence of friction, from the raw data set. Thereby the 3D ground reaction force, which is originally caused by the patient while walking, is reconstructed. Preliminary results are presented. In the second part methods of automatically preprocessing the kinematic data set are focused upon.