On the implementation of predictive methods to locate the hip joint centres

The purpose of this short communication is to discuss the relative benefits of various anthropometric parameters to drive predictive equations to locate the hip joint centres. The effect of soft tissue thickness over the anterior and posterior superior iliac spines on pelvic depth, pelvic width and leg length and position of the hip joint centres was discussed theoretically and experimentally, from a secondary analysis of previously published data. Results highlighted that anthropometric measurements of pelvic width and leg length were similar when obtained from MRI images or during gait analysis whereas pelvic depth was different. The secondary analysis showed that Harrington et al. [5] equations using either only pelvic width or only leg length would lead to 3mm improvement, in average over 164 limbs, over the equations using the best anthropometric predictors from MRI data.