FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MUSCLES DURING PATHOLOGICAL GAIT

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a study conducted to elucidate the behavioral characteristics of force, length, velocity, and the electrical activity in lower limb muscles during pathological gait. In this study, a method and model for describing three dimensional gait was developed, and the behavior of muscles in pathological gait was examined for its kinematic and electrical properties. The gaits of a group of children were examined for these characteristics and for the effects of surgery. For this study, the behavior of muscle was derived from subject motion recorded on film. Markers were placed on each subject at the joints and other significant anatomical landmarks. Using a finite impulse response digital filter with the muscle length data, the rates of change of length for the muscle were computed. The results of the study showed that abnormality in a one joint muscle coupled with normality in a two joint muscle sharing the same tendon can affect abnormal changes in two joints.