Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2012

Abstract

Background—Walking is problematic for patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency domain of the ground reaction forces during walking to further elucidate the ambulatory impairment of these patients.

Methods—Nineteen bilateral peripheral arterial disease patients and nineteen controls were included in this study. Subjects were matched for age and gait speed. Participants walked over a force plate sampling at 600Hz. PAD patients were tested before (pain-free condition) after the onset of claudication symptoms (pain). We calculated median frequency, frequency bandwidth, and frequency containing 99.5% of the signal for the vertical and anterior-posterior ground reaction forces.

Findings—Our results showed reduced median frequency in the vertical and anterior-posterior components of the ground reaction forces between the control group and both peripheral arterial disease conditions. We found reduced frequency bandwidth in the anterior-posterior direction between controls and the peripheral arterial disease pain-free condition. There were no differences in median frequency or bandwidth between peripheral arterial disease pain-free and pain conditions, but an increase in the frequency content for 99.5% of the signal was observed in the pain condition.

Interpretation—Reduced frequency phenomena during gait in peripheral arterial disease patients compared to velocity-matched controls suggests more sluggish activity within the neuromotor system. Increased frequency phenomena due to pain in these patients suggests a more erratic application of propulsive forces when walking. Frequency domain analysis thus offers new insights into the gait impairments associated with this patient population.

Comments

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Clinical Biomechanics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Clinical Biomechanics, Vol. 27, Issue 10 (December 2010) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268003312001787.

Journal Title

Clinical Biomechanics

Volume

27

Issue

10

First Page

1058

Last Page

1063

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Biomechanics Commons

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