GROUND REACTION FORCE ANALYSIS FOR ASSESSING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NORMAL AND WADDLING GAIT PATTERNS

Background: The purpose of this case series was to quantify gait to study muscular dystrophy. In this research, the quantitative diffences between normal and waddling gaits were assessed by force plate analysis. Methods: Nineteen myopathy patients and 20 normal subjects serving as the control group participated in this research. In this study, quantitative analyses of gait have been used to investigate the diffences in mobility between normal subjects and myopathy patients. Patient data were collected from Iranian Muscular Dystrophy Association members, and normal data were extracted from students of Azad University. All of the gait tests were performed using a Kistler force platform. Participants walked at a self-selected speed, barefoot, independently, and without assistive devices. Results: Our findings indicate that there were no significant differences between the patients and the control group in the anterior-posterior components of the ground reaction forces; however, there were considerable differences in the force components between the groups in the medial-lateral and vertical directions of the ground reaction force. In addition, there were significant differences in the time parameters between the groups along the vertical and mediallateral directions.