Quantification of dynamic EMG patterns during gait in children with cerebral palsy

Our goal was to simplify the representation and interpretation of surface electromyographic (EMG) activity during gait to develop a clinical method for evaluating gait disabilities in children with cerebral palsy (CP). EMG was recorded from four muscles of a lower extremity. Gait cycles were tracked from one force-sensing resistor signal that was recorded synchronously with EMG. The method is based on the comparison of a patient's dynamic EMG envelope shapes and the normative gait-related patterns (norms). Developed norms were based on EMG data obtained in 10 healthy children. Due to newly introduced techniques for time and amplitude normalization, norms were developed regardless of differences in subject age, gender, basic gait parameters and the EMG measurement process. The proposed gait metric quantifies the similarity between a patient's gait-related patterns and norms by a single global value suitable for gait analysis in general, including a detailed analysis using the 10 partial values. The gait metric was experimentally validated with a control group of healthy children and a group of children with CP with different degrees of motor deficits. Gait metric values obtained in children from the control group are high for all muscles, which means that gait-related patterns are close to norms, whereas in children with CP the higher the degree of motor deficit, the lower the gait metric values. The method could be a very useful clinical tool for the recognition and tracking of motor disorders of the lower extremities in children with CP as well as many other neuromotor pathologies. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.