An improved approach for performance evaluation in lower extremity involvement

An investigation has been carried out to confirm the relationship between heart rate and energy expenditure in case of normal and lower extremity handicapped persons and, to explore the difference, if any, between both the relationships. Studies have been made on 8 below-knee amputees fitted with patellar-tendon-bearing (PTB) prostheses and 10 normal subjects, taken as two separate groups and also, on 1 below-knee amputee and 1 control subject as individuals. It has been found that a significant difference exists between both the relationships and hence, separate heart rate-energy expenditure relationship is needed to evaluate the performance of lower extremity handicapped in clinics and in industry without going into the cumbersome, clumsy and time consuming methods of estimating physiological cost.