Ankle movements during normal gait evaluated by flexible electrogoniometer

• Autor(a) principal: Moriguchi,CS
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Sato,TO, Gil Coury,HJC
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-35552007000300006
• topic: gait; ankle; kinematics; electrogoniometer

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate ankle movements of healthy individuals walking on a treadmill, by means of a flexible electrogoniometer. METHOD: Dorsiflexion and plantar flexion and eversion/inversion movements were recorded for 90 seconds at a velocity of 5.0 km/h. Ten healthy young men of mean age 21.4 ± 2.99 years and mean height 1.62 ± 0.22 meters took part in this study. The data were analyzed descriptively (mean, standard deviation, maximum and minimum). In the sagittal plane, the gait cycle was analyzed at three times, taking the movement peaks: foot flat (FF), midstance (M) and toe off (TO). The inversion and eversion angles corresponding to these phases were identified, as well as movement peaks during gait cycles. Inter and intra-subject coefficients of variability (CV) were calculated. RESULTS: The mean values for the sagittal plane, for the left and right ankles were, respectively: 7º and 4º at FF, 2º and 7º at M, and 24º and 19º at TO. For the frontal plane, the results were inversion of 5º and 3º FF, 4º and 5º at M, and 15º and 16º at TO. The peak values were inversion of 17º and 18º and eversion of 1º. The maximum intra-subject CV was 0.39, and the maximum inter-subject CV was 0.44. CONCLUSION: The results obtained from the electrogoniometer were relatively similar to data reported in the literature for the sagittal plane, but not for the frontal plane. The discrepancies between studies measuring ankle movements suggest the need for standardization of the recording procedures.