title: Gait assessment in children with duchenne muscular dystrophy during long-distance walking.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the alteration of the gait pattern in 25 children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, using body-worn inertial sensors during a long walking distance. Normalized spatiotemporal gait parameters and their variability were extracted from the angular velocity of the shanks; the smoothness of the trunk movement was assessed based on the spectral entropy of the acceleration norm. As compared to healthy children, patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy showed significantly lower stride velocity and a less smooth trunk movement. When the group of patients was divided into mild and moderate based on the Motor Function Measure, the authors noticed significantly higher values both for cadence and stride velocity, as well as improved trunk smoothness in the mild versus moderate group. The potential of such parameters to distinguish between different disease states opens new perspectives for the objective assessment of efficacy of the new therapies associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
authors.affiliation: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement, Lausanne, Switzerland. raluca.ganea@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Raluca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ganea
authors.forename: Pierre-Yves
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Jeannet
authors.forename: Anisoara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paraschiv-Ionescu
authors.forename: Nathalie M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Goemans
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piot
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van den Hauwe
authors.forename: Kamiar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aminian
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020388:Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne / Q000150:complications*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*