3D motion analysis dataset of healthy young adult volunteers walking and running on overground and treadmill.

Used on clinical and sportive context, three-dimensional motion analysis is considered as the gold standard in the biomechanics field. The proposed dataset has been established on 30 asymptomatic young participants. Volunteers were asked to walk at slow, comfortable and fast speeds, and to run at comfortable and fast speeds on overground and treadmill using shoes. Three dimensional trajectories of 63 reflective markers, 3D ground reaction forces and moments were simultaneously recorded. A total of 4840 and 18159 gait cycles were measured for overground and treadmill walking, respectively. Additionally, 2931 and 18945 cycles were measured for overground and treadmill running, respectively. The dataset is presented in C3D and CSV files either in raw or pre-processed format. The aim of this dataset is to provide a complete set of data that will help for the gait characterization during clinical gait analysis and in a sportive context. This data could be used for the creation of a baseline database for clinical purposes to research activities exploring the gait and the run.

IMPROVE study protocol, investigating post-stroke local muscle vibrations to promote cerebral plasticity and functional recovery: a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Spasticity is a frequent disabling consequence following a stroke. Local muscle vibrations (LMVs) have been proposed as a treatment to address this problem. However, little is known about their clinical and neurophysiological impacts when used repeatedly during the subacute phase post-stroke. This project aims to evaluate the effects of a 6-week LMV protocol on the paretic limb on spasticity development in a post-stroke subacute population. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is an interventional, controlled, randomised, single-blind (patient) trial. 100 participants over 18 years old will be recruited, within 6 weeks following a first stroke with hemiparesis or hemiplegia. All participants will receive a conventional rehabilitation programme, plus 18 sessions of LMV (ie, continuously for 30 min) on relaxed wrist and elbow flexors: either (1) at 80 Hz for the interventional group or (2) at 40 Hz plus a foam band between the skin and the device for the control group.Participants will be evaluated at baseline, at 3 weeks and 6 weeks, and at 6 months after the end of the intervention. Spasticity will be measured by the modified Ashworth scale and with an isokinetic dynamometer. Sensorimotor function will be assessed with the Fugl-Meyer assessment of the upper extremity. Corticospinal and spinal excitabilities will be measured each time. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was recorded in a clinical trial and obtained approval from the institutional review board (Comité de protection des personnes Ile de France IV, 2021-A03219-32). All participants will be required to provide informed consent. The results of this trial will be published in peer-reviewed journals to disseminate information to clinicians and impact their practice for an improved patient's care. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Clinical Trial: NCT05315726 DATASET: EUDRAct.

Eccentric cycling involves greater mental demand and cortical activation of the frontoparietal network.

Eccentric, compared to concentric exercise, is proposed to involve different neuro-motor processing strategies and a higher level of mental demand. This study compared eccentric and concentric cycling at matched perceived effort and torque for the mental demand and related-cortical activation patterns. Nineteen men (30 ± 6 years) performed four different 5-min cycling conditions at 30 RPM on a semi-recumbent isokinetic cycle ergometer: (1) concentric at a moderate perceived effort (23 on the CR100® scale) without torque feedback; (2) concentric and (3) eccentric at the same average torque produced in the first condition; and (4) eccentric at the same moderate perceived effort than the first concentric condition. The conditions two to four were randomized. After each condition, mental demand was monitored using the NASA Task Load Index scale. Changes in oxy-(O2 Hb) and deoxy-(HHb) hemoglobin during exercise were measured over both prefrontal cortices and the right parietal lobe from a 15-probe layout using a continuous-wave NIRS system. Mental demand was significantly higher during eccentric compared to concentric cycling (+52%, p = 0.012) and when the exercise intensity was fixed by the torque rather than the perceived effort (+70%, p < 0.001). For both torque- or perceived effort-matched exercises, O2 Hb increased significantly (p < 0.001) in the left and right prefrontal cortices, and right parietal lobe, and HHb decreased in the left, and right, prefrontal cortices during eccentric compared to concentric cycling. This study supports that acute eccentric cycling, compared to concentric cycling, involves a higher mental demand, and frontoparietal network activation.

Influence of Posture on Gait Parameters in Severe Symptomatic Lumbar Stenosis Before and After Decompression Surgery.

BACKGROUND: We searched to quantify the influence of sagittal vertical axis (SVA) on the improvement of spatiotemporal gait parameters using a gait motion analysis (GMA) before and after decompression surgery in patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). METHODS: Thirty-nine patients with severe LisSS planned for lumbar decompression underwent a full-body biplanar radiographs (EOS) to quantify the SVA and have benefited from a 3-dimensional GMA 1 month before surgery (M0) and 6 month (M6) after surgery. The first step of this study was to confirm the validation of 3-dimensional sagittal vertical axis (3D SVA) for posture analysis. An analysis of modification of the 3D SVA and spatiotemporal gait parameters was then carried out in order to identify any correlation. RESULTS: Decompression surgery did not significantly improve 3D SVA between M0 and M6 (respectively 49.1 [50.3] vs. 49.84 [19.02], P = 0.42). Concerning spatiotemporal parameters, we found significant difference for all parameters between M0 and M6. A strong correlation (R2 > 0.65) between static SVA (EOS) and 3D SVA was demonstrated using a statistical regression equation. There was also a statistically significant correlation between SVA (static and 3-dimension) and improvement in spatiotemporal gait parameters after decompression surgery. CONCLUSIONS: This study analyses the relationship between postural change (SVA) and improvement in gait parameters measured during GMA before and after decompression surgery for LSS. This specific analysis of gait parameters may represent a prognostic assessment tool for the recovery of patients undergoing surgery for a LSS.

The Use of Embedded IMU Insoles to Assess Gait Parameters: A Validation and Test-Retest Reliability Study.

Wireless wearable insoles are interesting tools to collect gait parameters during daily life activities. However, studies have to be performed specifically for each type of insoles on a big data set to validate the measurement in ecological situations. This study aims to assess the criterion validity and test-retest reliability of gait parameters from wearable insoles compared to motion capture system. Gait of 30 healthy participants was recorded using DSPro® insoles and a motion capture system during overground and treadmill walking at three different speeds. Criterion validity and test-retest reliability of spatio-temporal parameters were estimated with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). For both systems, reliability was found higher than 0.70 for all variables (p < 0.001) except for minimum toe clearance (ICC < 0.50) with motion capture system during overground walking. Regardless of speed and condition of walking, Speed, Cadence, Stride Length, Stride Time and Stance Time variables were validated (ICC > 0.90; p < 0.001). During walking on treadmill, loading time was not validated during slow speed (ICC < 0.70). This study highlights good criterion validity and test-retest reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters measurement using wearable insoles and opens a new possibility to improve care management of patients using clinical gait analysis in daily life activities.

Sensitivity and specificity of the flexion and extension relaxation ratios to identify altered paraspinal muscles' flexion relaxation phenomenon in nonspecific chronic low back pain patients.

BACKGROUND: Among the main methods used to identify an altered flexion relaxation phenomenon (FRP) in nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP), it has been previously demonstrated that flexion relaxation ratio (FRR) and extension relaxation ratio (ERR) are more objective than the visual reference method. OBJECTIVE: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the different methods used to calculate the ratios in terms of their ability to identify an altered FRP in NSCLBP. METHODS: Forty-four NSCLBP patients performed a standing maximal trunk flexion task. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was recorded along the erector spinae longissimus (ESL) and multifidus (MF) muscles. Altered FRP based on sEMG was visually identified by three experts (current standard). Six FRR methods and five ERR methods were used both for the ESL and MF muscles. ROC curves (with areas under the curve (AUC) and sensitivity/specificity) were generated for each ratio. RESULTS: All methods used to calculate these ratios had an AUC higher than 0.9, excellent sensitivity (>90 %), and good specificity (80-100 %) for both ESL and MF muscles. CONCLUSION: Both FRP ratios (FRR and ERR) for MF and ESL muscles, appear to be an objective, sensitive and specific method for identifying altered FRP in NSCLBP patients.

A 6-Month Home-Based Functional Electrical Stimulation Program for Foot Drop in a Post-Stroke Patient: Considerations on a Time Course Analysis of Walking Performance.

Foot drop is a common disability in post-stroke patients and represents a challenge for the clinician. To date, ankle foot orthosis (AFO) combined with conventional rehabilitation is the gold standard of rehabilitation management. AFO has a palliative mechanical action without actively restoring the associated neural function. Functional electrical stimulation (FES), consisting of stimulation of the peroneal nerve pathway, represents an alternative approach. By providing an FES device (Bioness L-300, BIONESS, Valencia, CA, USA) for 6 months to a post-stroke 22-year-old woman with a foot drop, our goal was to quantify its potential benefit on walking capacity. The gait parameters and the temporal evolution of the speed were collected with a specific connected sole device (Feet Me®) during the 10-m walking, the time up and go, and the 6-minute walking tests with AFO, FES, or without any device (NO). As a result, the walking speed changes on 10-m were clinically significant with an increase from the baseline to 6 months in AFO (+0.14 m.s-1), FES (+0.36 m.s-1) and NO (+0.32 m.s-1) conditions. In addition, the speed decreased at about 4-min in the 6-minute walking test in NO and AFO conditions, while the speed increased in the FES conditions at baseline and after 1, 3, and 6 months. In addition to the walking performance improvement, monitoring the gait speed in an endurance test after an ecological rehabilitation training program helps to examine the walking performance in post-stroke patients and to propose a specific rehabilitation program.

Gait analysis dataset of healthy volunteers and patients before and 6 months after total hip arthroplasty.

Clinical gait analysis is a promising approach for quantifying gait deviations and assessing the impairments altering gait in patients with osteoarthritis. There is a lack of consensus on the identification of kinematic outcomes that could be used for the diagnosis and follow up in patients. The proposed dataset has been established on 80 asymptomatic participants and 106 patients with unilateral hip osteoarthritis before and 6 months after arthroplasty. All volunteers walked along a 6 meters straight line at their self-selected speed. Three dimensional trajectories of 35 reflective markers were simultaneously recorded and Plugin Gait Bones, angles, Center of Mass trajectories and ground reaction forces were computed. Gait video recordings, when available, anthropometric and demographic descriptions are also available. A minimum of 10 trials have been made available in the weka file format and C3D file to enhance the use of machine learning algorithms. We aim to share this dataset to facilitate the identification of new movement-related kinematic outcomes for improving the diagnosis and follow up in patients with hip OA.

Concentric versus eccentric cycling at equal power output or effort perception: Neuromuscular alterations and muscle pain.

This study aimed to compare neuromuscular alterations and perceptions of effort and muscle pain induced by concentric and eccentric cycling performed at the same power output or effort perception. Fifteen participants completed three 30-min sessions: one in concentric at 60% peak power output (CON) and two in eccentric, at the same power output (ECCPOWER ) or same perceived effort (ECCEFFORT ). Muscle pain, perception of effort, oxygen uptake as well as rectus femoris and vastus lateralis electromyographic activities were collected when pedaling. The knee extensors maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) torque, the torque evoked by double stimulations at 100 Hz and 10 Hz (Dt100; Dt10), and the voluntary activation level (VAL) were evaluated before and after exercise. Power output was higher in ECCEFFORT than CON (89.1 ± 23.3% peak power). Muscle pain and effort perception were greater in CON than ECCPOWER (p < 0.03) while muscle pain was similar in CON and ECCEFFORT (p > 0.43). MVC torque, Dt100, and VAL dropped in all conditions (p < 0.04). MVC torque (p < 0.001) and the Dt10/ Dt100 ratio declined further in ECCEFFORT (p < 0.001). Eccentric cycling perceived as difficult as concentric cycling caused similar muscle pain but more MVC torque decrease. A given power output induced lower perceptions of pain and effort in eccentric than in concentric yet similar MVC torque decline. While neural impairments were similar in all conditions, eccentric cycling seemed to alter excitation-contraction coupling. Clinicians should thus be cautious when setting eccentric cycling intensity based on effort perception.

Which functional tasks present the largest deficits for patients with total hip arthroplasty before and six months after surgery? A study of the timed up-and-go test phases.

Six to eight months after total hip arthroplasty, patients only attain 80% of the functional level of control groups. Understanding which functional tasks are most affected could help reduce this deficit by guiding rehabilitation towards them. The timed up-and-go test bundles multiple tasks together in one test and is a good indicator of a patient's overall level of function. Previously, biomechanical analysis of its phases was used to identify specific functional deficits in pathological populations. To the best of our knowledge, this analysis has never been performed in patients who have undergone total hip arthroplasty. Seventy-one total hip arthroplasty patients performed an instrumented timed up-and-go test in a gait laboratory before and six months after surgery; fifty-two controls performed it only once. Biomechanical features were selected to analyse the test's four phases (sit-to-stand, walking, turning, turn-to-sit) and mean differences between groups were evaluated for each phase. On average, six months after surgery, patients' overall test time rose to 80% of the mean of the control group. The walking phase was revealed as the main deficiency before and after surgery (-41 ± 47% and -22 ± 32% slower, respectively). High standard deviations indicated that variability between patients was high. On average, patients showed improved results in every phase of the timed up-and-go test six months after surgery, but residual deficits in function differed between those phases. This simple test could be appropriate for quantifying patient-specific deficits in function and hence guiding and monitoring post-operative rehabilitation in clinical settings.

Measuring threshold and latency of motion perception on a swinging bed.

INTRODUCTION: Our objective was to develop and to evaluate a system to measure latency and threshold of pendular motion perception based on a swinging bed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective study included 30 healthy adults (age: 32 ± 12 years). All subjects were tested twice with a 10 min. interval. A second trial was conducted 2 to 15 days after. A rehabilitation swinging bed was connected to an electronic device emitting a beep at the beginning of each oscillation phase with an adjustable time lag. Subjects were blindfolded and auditory cues other than the beep were minimized. The acceleration threshold was measured by letting the bed oscillate freely until a natural break and asking the patient when he did not perceive any motion. The perception latency was determined by asking the patient to indicate whether the beep and the peak of each oscillation were synchronous. The time lag between sound and peak of the head position was swept from -750 to +750 ms by 50 ms increments. RESULTS: The mean acceleration threshold was 9.2±4.60 cm/s2. The range width of the synchronous perception interval was estimated as 535±190 ms. The point of subjective synchronicity defined as the center of this interval was -195±106 ms (n = 30). The test-retest evaluation in the same trial showed an acceptable reproducibility for the acceleration threshold and good to excellent for all parameters related to sound-movement latency. CONCLUSION: Swinging bed combined to sound stimulation can provide reproducible information on movement perception in a simple and non-invasive manner with highly reproducible results.

Is the Short and Fast Step Test a safe and feasible tool for exploring anaerobic capacities of individuals with coronary heart disease in clinical practice?

BACKGROUND: While its importance in daily living, the anaerobic metabolism is not taken into account in clinical practice. The lack of validated functional performance tests for patients with chronic disabilities may explain this defect. In this context, the Short and Fast Step Test (SFST) was recently developed and validated in healthy volunteers. AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety, feasibility and reliability of the SFST, a functional test exploring anaerobic metabolism in coronary patients during cardiac rehabilitation. DESIGN: This study was a monocentric prospective study. SETTING: This study took place in the rehabilitation center of the University Hospital Center of Dijon, France. POPULATION: Forty-four coronary patients addressed for a first cardiac rehabilitation were included in this protocol. METHODS: All participants performed three SFST: T1 and T2 (including respiratory gas exchange) the first day of the program and T3 after 3 to 7 days. SFST consists of walking up and down a 17.5 cm-high step as many times as possible in 1 minute. Safety was assessed by the percentage of patients who performed the SFST without reporting a fall, or muscular or cardiovascular events. Feasibility was evaluated by the percentage of patients who succeeded in doing the SFST. Reliability was assessed with the number of raised steps in same condition (T1-T3) and different conditions (T1-T2) using a 2-way intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Values were given with their 90% confidence interval [90% CI]. RESULTS: The safety was 95.2% [85.8-99.2] for T1, 88.1% [76.6-95.2] for T2 and 90.4% [79.5-96.7] for T3. 100% [93.1-100] of participants completed T1 and T2, 92.9% [82.6-98] T3. An ICC of 0.74 [0.60-0.84] was observed between T1 and T3 and of 0.87 [0.79-0.92] between T1 and T2. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the good safety, feasibility and reliability of the SFST to assess anaerobic metabolism in coronary patients in a rehabilitation program. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: These results show that the SFST seems suitable for the evaluation of brief submaximal functional capacity in daily activities. It offers a real possibility to assess such capacity during the cardiac rehabilitation routine.

Kinematics and electromyographic activity of horse riders during various cross-country jumps in equestrian.

The objective of this study was to identify the key biomechanical patterns (functional muscles and kinematics) of amateur horse riders during various cross-country jumps in equestrian. Eleven riders first performed a control condition that corresponded to jumps over three different obstacles (log wall, brush and tree trunk) before jumping over the same three obstacles in a cross-country course. 3D Kinematics and electromyographic (EMG) activity was synchronously collected which included seven muscles of the riders back, lower and upper limbs. Maximum voluntary isometric strength of knee extensors was also measured before and immediately after the race to investigate potential fatigue. Our results showed similar EMG activity for the different obstacles. Whereas some kinematics alterations were observed between obstacles. Moreover, back movements alterations were recorded between the jumps of the cross-country as compared to the control condition. Finally, muscle strength was not altered after the race. In conclusion, our study indicates that upper and lower body muscles contributed to the realisation of various jumps during a cross-country and that the different configurations of the obstacles did not induced specific muscular and kinematic responses.

Machine Learning Approaches for Activity Recognition and/or Activity Prediction in Locomotion Assistive Devices-A Systematic Review.

Locomotion assistive devices equipped with a microprocessor can potentially automatically adapt their behavior when the user is transitioning from one locomotion mode to another. Many developments in the field have come from machine learning driven controllers on locomotion assistive devices that recognize/predict the current locomotion mode or the upcoming one. This review synthesizes the machine learning algorithms designed to recognize or to predict a locomotion mode in order to automatically adapt the behavior of a locomotion assistive device. A systematic review was conducted on the Web of Science and MEDLINE databases (as well as in the retrieved papers) to identify articles published between 1 January 2000 to 31 July 2020. This systematic review is reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and is registered on Prospero (CRD42020149352). Study characteristics, sensors and algorithms used, accuracy and robustness were also summarized. In total, 1343 records were identified and 58 studies were included in this review. The experimental condition which was most often investigated was level ground walking along with stair and ramp ascent/descent activities. The machine learning algorithms implemented in the included studies reached global mean accuracies of around 90%. However, the robustness of those algorithms seems to be more broadly evaluated, notably, in everyday life. We also propose some guidelines for homogenizing future reports.

Corrigendum: Neuromuscular and Perceptual Responses to Sub-Maximal Eccentric Cycling.

[This corrects the article on p. 354 in vol. 10, PMID: 30984032.].

A tool to improve functional outcome assessment of a multimodal program for patients with chronic low back pain: A study on walk tests (at comfortable and fast speed).

BACKGROUND: Tools for functional assessment of chronic low back pain (LBP) are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To determine the correlations and the responsiveness of the 400 m comfortable walk test (400 mCWT) and the 200 m fast-walk test (200 mFWT) in the functional assessment of a multimodal program. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-seven participants (68 females) with LBP and with or without radicular pain completed a Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale, a Sorensen test, a Shirado test, a 400 mCWT and a 200 mFWT, at baseline and at the end of the program. RESULTS: No significant side effect was reported during walk tests. Walking speed was significantly increased after the program (0.18 ± 0.15 m.s-1 for the 400 mCWT and 0.17 ± 0.17 m.s-1 for the 200 mFWT). Clinical parameters were also significantly improved (82.02 ± 83.1 seconds for the Shirado, 92.1 ± 100.1 seconds for the Sorensen, -14.0 ± 12.9 for the Quebec scale). A significant relationship was found between the increase in walking speed for the two walk tests and the improvement of the Quebec scale. The gait speed improvement was close to the minimal clinically important change (95% confidence interval: 0.14-0.22) determined from the Quebec scale threshold (minimum detectable change). CONCLUSIONS: Both 400 mCWT and 200 mFWT are correlated with functional parameters and are responsive for the functional assessment of LBP.