Article

The objective of this study was to determine the reliability of repeated plantar
pressure distribution measurements during normal gait across multiple testing
sessions. Testing sessions were conducted on 5 separate days at approximately the
same time of day. Nine subjects (five males, four females, age 26+/-8.4 years)
who were free of any musculoskeletal injury were recruited. A capacitive pressure
distribution platform (EMED AT, Novel GmbH, Munich, Germany), sampling at 50Hz
was used to collect plantar pressure patterns during barefoot walking at a
self-selected speed. Four parameters were investigated: peak pressure, maximum
force, impulse, and contact time, and these were investigated in 10 areas of the
foot after using the PRC mask method of subdividing the foot into ten anatomical
areas of interest. Individual means of all the five repeated trials for each foot
were calculated, and these values were used to calculate intraclass correlation
coefficients (ICC) and coefficients of variation (CoV) for all parameters. The
results of this investigation show a generally good level of reliability, the
quality of which is dependent on the region of the foot and the parameter
investigated. Areas with typically high loading characteristics, such as the
central forefoot showed a higher level of reliability in the ICC's (>0.9) than
less loaded areas such as the medial midfoot (<0.8). The conclusion of this study
is that plantar pressure distribution measurements can be used in comparative
evaluations since the measures of repeatability are satisfactory for the
parameters and foot regions usually used in the investigation of clinical
populations such as neuropathic diabetics.

Langue : ANGLAIS