Unravelling stroke gait deviations with movement analytics, more than meets the eye: a case control study

This study aimed to identify and quantify the kinematic and kinetic gait deviations in post-stroke hemiplegic gait with matched healthy controls using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM). Fifteen chronic stroke patients and 15 matched healthy were recruited. During a 10-m walking task, joint angles, ground reaction forces (GRF), and joint moments were collected, analyzed, and compared for an entire gait cycle. The results showed that generally, when comparing the stroke patients’ affected hemiplegic and less affected, contralateral limbs with the control group, SPM identified significant differences in the late stance phase and early swing phase in the joint angles and moments in bilateral limbs (all p <  0.005). In particular, vertical and anteroposterior components of GRF were significantly different in various periods of the stance phase (all p <  0.005), while mediolateral component showed no differences between the two groups. The SPM method was able to describe abnormal gait cycle patterns in both the affected and less affected limbs with significant differences when compared with the control group. The findings draw attention to significant quantifiable gait deviations in the less affected post-stroke limb which may provide rehabilitation professionals with new insights with potential impact on gait retraining strategies.