Unraveling stroke gait deviations with movement analytics, more than meets the eye: a case control study

This study aimed to identify and quantify the kinematic and kinetic gait deviations in post-stroke hemiplegic patients with matched healthy controls using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM).

Fifteen chronic stroke patients [4 females, 11 males; age 53.7 (standard deviation 12.2) years; body mass 65.4 (10.4) kg; standing height 168.5 (9.6) cm] and 15 matched healthy controls [4 females, 11 males; age 52.9 (11.7) years; body weight 66.5 (10.7) years; standing height 168.3 (8.8) cm] were recruited. In a 10-m walking task, joint angles, ground reaction forces (GRF), and joint moments were collected, analyzed, and compared using SPM for an entire gait cycle.

Generally, when comparing the stroke patients' affected (hemiplegic) and less-affected (contralateral) limbs with the control group, SPM identified significant differences in the late stance phase and early swing phase in the joint angles and moments in bilateral limbs (all p < 0.005). In addition, the vertical and anteroposterior components of GRF were significantly different in various periods of the stance phase (all p < 0.005), while the mediolateral component showed no differences between the two groups.

SPM was able to detect abnormal gait patterns in both the affected and less-affected limbs of stroke patients with significant differences when compared with matched controls. The findings draw attention to significant quantifiable gait deviations in the less-affected post-stroke limb with the potential impact to inform gait retraining strategies for clinicians and physiotherapists.