Article

The reliability of kinematic measurements has a top priority in gait analysis.
The aim of the present work was to assess the inter-trial, inter-session and
inter-examiner variability of an anatomical-based protocol by an established
method. The gait of two young adult volunteers was analyzed by four examiners
with different degrees of experience in three sessions 1 week apart. The data of
five trials of level walking were collected and the rotations in the three
anatomical planes of the pelvis, hip, knee and ankle were calculated. The mean
value over the gait cycle of the standard deviation of these rotations was
calculated for each of the 24 groups of five trials (inter-trial), the eight
groups of five trials multiplied by three sessions (inter-session), and the two
groups of five trials multiplied by three sessions multiplied by four examiners
(inter-examiner). For each rotation, the inter-examiner variability was larger
than the inter-session, and the latter larger than the inter-trial. The present
ratio between inter-examiner and inter-trial variability was found to be smaller than that of the conventional protocol for each of the gait variables.
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Langue : ANGLAIS