Accelerometric evaluation of ataxic gait: Therapeutic uses of weighting and elastic bandage

Abstract

Two-dimensional (fore –- aft and vertical) acceleration of locomotion was measured in 10 normal subjects and 13 patients with idiopathic olivopontocerebellar atrophy who were ataxic but able to walk without any assistance. Accelerometers were tightly placed on the third lumbar vertebra. Asymmetry and unsmoothness indices of locomotion defined from the line spectra of the accelerometric data were computed. Reproducibility of the indices was checked in the normal subjects and patients. The index values were significantly correlated with visual rating of gait unsteadiness in the patents'. The indices for vertical components were significantly increased when subjects walked slowly. Effects of weights and bandages on gait were analysed by the fore –- aft components of the indices. They were attached to both lower extremities. Weighting or bandaging did not change, or even increased the index values in most of the normal subjects. The indices were also unchanged in the patients. However, some of the patients showed significant improvement with weights or bandages. Mechanisms of therapeutic effects of weighting and elastic bandages on ataxia are discussed.

Key Words:

• Ataxia
• Locomotion
• Accelerometry
• Weights
• Bandages

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Y. Okajima

It is with great sadness that we have to inform the readership of the Journal that shortly after completing the final editorial work on this Special Issue, Professor Kalman Jacob Mann was seriously injured in a car accident and subsequently died.

Professor Mann was responsible for establishing the two Hadassah Hospitals and Community Health Centres in Jerusalem and for the past 20 years headed the Presidium of Yad Sarah, Israel's largest community based, volunteer operated organization which provides a spectrum of free or nominal cost home care services nation-wide.

We offer our condolences to his family and friends, and trust that this Special Issue stands as a testament to his work in the field.