Soma T.1, Tampo N.2
1Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Department of Physical Therapy, Niigata, Japan, 2Graduate School of Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Department of Physical Therapy, Niigata, Japan
Background: Orthosis therapy for stoke patients has been an efficient method to enhance gait ability. The function of lower limb orthosis with trunk belt （CVAid）is to increase swing of the hemiplegic side of lower extremity in stoke patient during gait. So far, the mechanical analysis of lower extremity joint in gait with CVAid has been our research focus.
Purpose: This research aims to clarify the center of gravity and postural movement during CVAid gait, as well as to discuss the effectiveness of CVAid gait in terms of orthosis therapy.
Methods: Subjects were 10 healthy male adults (age: 21.2±0.4 years). All subjects received informed-consent. The measurement movement was gait with right lower limb equipping CVAid. The tensile force of the body trunk belt of CVAid was set to 3.0kg using a tension meter. The postural movement was measured by a 2-ponit gait oscillometer（MVP-WS2-S）with acceleration sensors stuck to 2 places: the breast and waist. A three-dimensional movement analysis device (VICON Nexus) was used to measure the body gravity center. The postural movement and body gravity center of breast and waist in normal gait and CVAid gait have been analyzed by paired t-tests.
Results: The postural movements of CVAid gait was significantly larger 57±13mm compared to normal gait 47±11mm in horizontal direction. The center of gravity of CVAid gait was also significantly larger 52±11mm compared to normal gait 41±11mm in horizontal direction. The postural movements and center of gravity were shifted to right during middle stance phase.
Conclusion(s): As these results, the center of gravity would shift to involved side with increased weight bearing to lower extremity in CVAid gait. This indicates that it is benefit for CVA patient to increase weight bearing to involved lower extremity during gait training. In general, it is more energy consumption with larger postural movements; therefore, it might not be benefit considering energy efficiency with CVAid gait.
Implications: CVAid might be an effective lower limb orthosis for stroke patient to improve function in both stance phase and swing phase during gait training. We will develop our research to investigate the effectiveness of CVAid in clinical practice by adjusting tensile force of the body trunk belt.
Funding acknowledgements: This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Niigata University of Health and Welfare, 2016.
Topic: Human movement analysis
Ethics approval: The research was approval from the ethical committee of the institution where the speaker is affiliated to. (Approval number 17622)
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
