Effect of Tibia Marker Placement on Kinematics in Pathological Gait

This study aimed to determine the effect of tibia marker placement on walking kinematics in children with pathological gait. Three-dimensional lower extremity gait data were collected using both a traditional tibia wand (protruding laterally from the distal shank) and a tibia crest marker on 25 children with pathological gait. Kinematic variables during walking and quiet standing were calculated using each marker and the "Plug-in Gait" implementation of the conventional gait model. For walking, average differences in kinematics between tibia markers ranged from 0.1° to 1.9° at the knee and ankle, except in the transverse plane where differences were 6.0° to 7.2°. No significant differences were found during quiet standing, indicating that differences in kinematics derive primarily from dynamic sources, which likely affect the tibia wand more than the tibia crest marker. These results suggest that the tibia crest marker can be used in place of the traditional tibia wand in clinical gait analysis.