Background:
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) are progressive neuromuscular disorders resulting in impaired ambulatory function. Disease modifying treatments demonstrate improved function but their impact on gait is unknown. Current wearable sensors show moderate accuracy in measuring spatiotemporal gait parameters. This research aims to devise novel instrumented insoles capable of accurately measuring spatiotemporal gait parameters using new learning-based abstraction models.
Objectives:
Thirty-nine children and adults (> 5 years) will complete in-lab tests including 6-minute walk test, Timed Up and Go test, 10-meter walk/run, and curved-line walking assessments. Gait parameters will be simultaneously collected with instrumented insoles and a validated Zeno walkway system. Average stride length (SL), stride velocity (SV), stride time (ST), swing time (SwT), and double support (DS) will be determined with percent mean absolute error (PMAE).
Results:
Preliminary spatiotemporal data from in-lab testing with four healthy control (HC) (age range 8.0-30.3 years), three DMD (age range 5.2-15.4 years), and three SMA participants (age range 31-46.7 years) yield an average SL in HC, DMD, and SMA of 164.25, 141.36, and 122.59 cm, and average PMAE 2.32%, 4.99%, and 2.89% respectively. Average SV in HC, DMD, and SMA was 194.64, 163.16, and 105.40 cm/s, and average PMAE 2.36%, 5.07%, and 2.86% respectively. Average ST in HC, DMD, and SMA was 0.842, 0.882, and 1.35 seconds and average PMAE of 0.54%, 1.72% and 0.74% respectively. Average SwT in HC, DMD and SMA was 0.332, 0.334, and 0.465 seconds, and average PMAE 2.42%, 6.19%, and 6.39% respectively. Average DS in HC, DMD and SMA was 0.084, 0.102, and 0.206 seconds, and average PMAE 12.26%, 15.90%, and 11.38% respectively.
Conclusion:
This work will address the need for sensitive and accurate measurements of gait parameters in neuromuscular disorders and improve the understanding of how new treatments impact gait pathomechanics.