Article

The aim of this study was to develop a feedback system to assist gait
rehabilitation of cerebral palsy (CP) toe walkers with dynamic equinus. DESIGN: Plantar pressure of the forefoot and the heel was collected by sensorized insoles
embedded in custom-built shoes and transmitted to a smartphone via Bluetooth.
Dynamic foot pressure index of each stride was calculated by purpose-designed
software running in the smartphone to distinguish toe-walking strides from normal
strides in real time. An auditory signal would be produced to alert the patient
each time a toe-walking stride was detected. RESULTS: For CP toe walkers, the
one-way analysis of variance indicated a significant difference (F1,14 = 19.492,
P = 0.001) in dynamic foot pressure index between the affected side (31.4 +/-
12.0) and the unaffected side (58.6 +/- 2.5). In addition, the validation test
showed that this system can distinguish toe-walking strides from normal strides
of children with CP with an accuracy of 95.3%. CONCLUSIONS: This system was able
to monitor the toe-walking strides of children with CP in real time and had the
potential to enhance rehabilitation training efficiency and correct toe-walking
gait in children with CP with dynamic equinus.

Langue : ANGLAIS