title: Day-to-day consistency of lower extremity kinematics during stair ambulation in 24-45 years old athletes.
abstract: Before making interpretations on the effects of interventions or on the features of pathological gait patterns during stair ambulation, the day-to-day consistency of the investigated variables must be established. In this article, the day-to-day consistency was determined for kinematic variables during barefoot stair ambulation. Ten healthy athletes performed two gait analysis sessions, at least one week apart, utilizing a marker set of 47 skin markers, and a functional joint center/axes determination. Being found on limits of agreement and mean differences between the repeated stair ambulation sessions, totally 43 ranges of motions were examined at the hip, knee, ankle, and midfoot joints. The day-to-day consistency was generally in the magnitude of three degrees, irrespective of test condition, investigated joint, or regarded cardinal body plane. The reported values of the day-to-day consistency provide guidelines to distinguish between pathological and healthy gait patterns, and thresholds to determine minimal effects of interventions during stair ambulation.
authors.affiliation: ETH Zurich, Institute for Biomechanics, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. husaj@ethz.ch
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Husa-Russell
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ukelo
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: List
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lorenzetti
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology; D056352:Athletes; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D055815:Young Adult