While inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based systems have shown their potential in quantifying medically significant gait parameters, it remains to be determined whether they can provide accurate and reliable parameters both across various walking conditions and in healthcare settings. Using an IMU-based system we previously developed, with one IMU module on each subject’s heel, we quantify the gait parameters of 55 men and 46 women, all healthy and aged 40–65, in normal, dual-task, and fast walking conditions. We evaluate their intra-session reliability, and we establish a new reference database of such parameters showing good to excellent reliability. ICC(2,1) assesses relative reliability, while SEM% and MDC% assess absolute reliability. The reliability is excellent for all spatiotemporal gait parameters and the stride length (SL) symmetry ratio (ICC ≥ 0.90, SEM% ≤ 4.5%, MDC% ≤ 12.4%) across all conditions. It is good to excellent for the fast walking performance (FWP) indices of stride (Sr), stance (Sa), double-support (DS), and step (St) times; gait speed (GS); and the GS normalized to leg length (GS_n1) and body height (GS_n2) (ICC ≥ 0.91, |SEM%| ≤ 10.0%, |MDC%| ≤ 27.6%). Men have a higher swing time (Sw) and SL across all conditions. The following parameters are gender-independent: (1) Sa, DS, GS_n1, GS_n2; (2) the symmetry ratios of SL and GS, as well as Sa% and Sw% (representing Sa and Sw as percentages of Sr); and (3) the FWPs of Sr, Sa, Sw, DS, St, cadence, Sa% and Sw%. Our results provide reference values with new insights into gender FWP comparisons rarely reported in the literature. The advantages and reliability of our IMU-based system make it suitable in medical applications such as prosthetic evaluation, fall risk assessment, and rehabilitation.

While inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based systems have shown their potential in quantifying medically-significant gait parameters, it remains to be demonstrated that they can provide accurate and reliable parameters both across various walking conditions and in healthcare settings. Using an IMU-based system we have previously developed, with one IMU module on each subject’s heel, we quantify gait parameters in 55 men and 46 women, all healthy and aged 40-65, in normal, dual-task, and fast-walking conditions. We evaluate their intra-session reliability, and we establish a new reference database of such parameters showing good to excellent reliability. ICC(2,1) assesses relative reliability, while SEM% and MDC% evaluate absolute reliability. The reliability is excellent for all spatiotemporal gait parameters and stride length (SL) symmetry ratio (ICC≥0.90, SEM%≤4.5%, MDC%≤12.4%) across all conditions. It is good to excellent for fast-walking performance (FWP) indices of stride (Sr), stance (Sa), double-support (DS), and step (St) times; gait speed (GS), and GS normalized to leg length (GSn1) and body height (GSn2) (ICC≥0.91, |SEM%|≤10.0%, |MDC%|≤27.6%). Men have higher swing time (Sw) and SL across all conditions. The following parameters are gender-independent: (1) Sa, DS, GSn1, GSn2; (2) symmetry ratios of Sa, Sa ratio (Sa%), Sw, Sw ratio (Sw%), SL, GS; and (3) FWPs of Sr, Sa, Sw, DS, St, cadence, Sa%, Sw%. Our results provide reference values with new insights into gender FWP comparisons rarely reported in the literature. The advantages and reliability of our IMU-based system make it suitable in medical applications such as prosthetic evaluation, fall-risk assessment, and rehabilitation.

Stroke consequences include hemiparesis and difficulty walking. Several types of canes exist to overcome these alterations, but little data compares the quadripod cane and the rolling cane in hemiparetic patients. The objective of this work is twofold: to determine whether the gait speed—the most often used parameter to assess gait performance—depends on the type of cane, and to establish which spatiotemporal parameters have the most influence. Thirty-four hemiparetic patients performed 10 m walking tests at comfortable and fast speed conditions, using both canes on two different days. To objectively analyze their gait patterns, we used a tri-axial Inertial Measurement Units (IMU)-based system to record the walking signals from which we extracted the gait spatiotemporal parameters. We particularly examined the speed, stride length, and durations of stance, swing, and double support phases. The results showed that hemiparetic patients walked faster with the rolling cane during both speed conditions. These speed increases could be explained by the decrease in the stance phase duration of the affected leg, the decrease in the double support duration, and the increase in cadence. Our findings suggest that the rolling cane allows safe and faster walking.

Objective: To apply for the first time in Parkinson’s disease (PD) a newly developed and validated signal-processing algorithm aimed at quantifying the variability, symmetry, and regularity of refined temporal gait parameters during comfortable walking using an ambulatory accelerometer-based foot-mounted system. Methods: We recorded 47 seconds long gait data from 14 PD patients ((mean±std) age = 67.8 ± 10.8 years, Unified PD Rating Scale score obtained on medication (Part III) = 27.8 ± 11.6, Hoehn & Yahr stage = 2.0 ± 0.6) and 14 age-matched controls (age = 68.2 ± 10.2 years) using 4 accelerometers attached to the regular shoes of each participant [1][2]. Participants walked in straight lines at their self-selected/usual speed outside a controlled laboratory. Data processing and analyses included the following chronological steps. First, we extracted stride-by-stride left/right heel strike (HS), toe strike (TS), toe-off (TO), maximum heel clearance (MHC), and maximum toe clearance (MTC) timings. Second, using these timings, we computed the mean/coefficient of variation (CV) of durations of (1) left/right stride (Sr), stance (Sa), swing (Sw), and double-support (DS) phases, and (2) left/right HS to TS (HS2TS), TS to TO (TS2TO), TO to MHC (TO2MHC), MTC to HS (MTC2HS) sub-phases [3]. We also calculated symmetry and regularity ratios, and phase/sub-phase durations as percentages of Sr. Results: Compared with controls, PD patients showed significantly decreased mean value of HS2TO and increased variability of several gait phase/sub-phase durations (Table 1). Conclusions: This accelerometer-based algorithm is able to quantify disturbances in gait phase/sub-phase durations during comfortable walking in PD patients. This opens new perspectives for gait analyses in PD patients with/without freezing of gait in their ecological environment.