Comprehensive gait analysis in spinal cord injured patients with functional electrical stimulation

A gait analysis system comprising of hardware and software were used to better quantify pathological gait patterns in spinal cord injured patients using functional electrical stimulation (FES). The hardware allows 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes continues recordings of 8 channel joint angles, 6 channel ground floor reactions, and 2 channel axial crutch force simultaneously. The data is downloaded to a host computer which is then processed via a command program in DADiSP software. Average knee and hip angles (ext./abd), % body weight on feet and crutches, stance and swing times, and stride velocity are presented as informational hard copies along with storing as a file, which can be reassessed for continued analysis via the normal DADiSP software.<
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