Background

Instrumented treadmills are potentially useful tools for the assessment of gait parameters in orthopaedic clinical settings, but their measurement properties remain uncertain.

Research question

What is the discriminant validity and reproducibility of spatiotemporal and kinetic gait parameters measured by a pressure-instrumented treadmill at different speeds and inclinations in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA)?

Methods

A total of 54 patients with unilateral KOA and 23 healthy controls took part in the study. Step length, single-limb support duration and ground reaction force were recorded during level and uphill walking at 3 and 4 km/h using a commercially-available treadmill instrumented with an integrated pressure platform. We examined discriminant validity (difference between involved and uninvolved side as well as against healthy controls) and test-retest reproducibility (reliability and agreement).

Results

Significant side differences were observed for single-limb support duration and ground reaction force at touchdown in all conditions (P < 0.05). All the investigated gait parameters showed acceptable reliability and agreement, except step length at 4 km/h uphill.

Significance

We conclude that the pressure-instrumented treadmill used in this study may have good clinical utility for quantitative gait analysis in patients with KOA under different experimental conditions.

中文翻译：

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膝骨关节炎患者在跑步机行走过程中时空和动力学参数的判别有效性和可重复性。

背景

仪器跑步机是整形外科临床环境中评估步态参数的潜在有用工具，但其测量性能仍不确定。

研究问题

用压力器械跑步机以不同的速度和倾斜度对膝骨关节炎（KOA）患者所测量的时空和运动步态参数的判别有效性和可重复性是什么？

方法

共有54位单侧KOA患者和23位健康对照参加了研究。使用配有集成压力平台的市售跑步机，在3 km / h和4 km / h的水平和上坡步行过程中记录步长，单肢支撑持续时间和地面反作用力。我们检查了判别有效性（参与和未参与方面以及健康对照之间的差异）和重测测试的可重复性（可靠性和一致性）。

结果

在所有条件下，单肢支撑持续时间和着陆时的地面反作用力均存在明显的侧差（P <0.05）。所有研究的步态参数均显示出可接受的可靠性和一致性，除了上坡4 km / h的步长。

意义

我们得出的结论是，本研究中使用的压力器械跑步机在不同实验条件下对KOA患者的步态进行定量分析可能具有良好的临床实用性。