An Examination of Non-dominant Leg Gait and Gait Symmetry through AFO and VO2 Analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Morales, Tye Alexander
- Area of Honors:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Joseph Michael Mahoney, Thesis Supervisor
Jeanne Marie Rose, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- AFO
Gait Symmetry
VO2
Leg Dominance
Respiratory Exchange Ratio
RER
ROM - Abstract:
- The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among Ankle Foot Orthoses (AFOs) on the dominant leg, resulting angles of the non-dominant leg, and energy expenditure. Four healthy, young individuals walked on a treadmill for one and one-half minutes at a rate of 2.7 mph for three different trials. A GA200 VO2 gas analyzer was used to measure and analyze energy expenditure from oxygen-expulsion. A Cannon camera was used to record the motion of the non-dominant. MATLAB programming software was used to analyze the angles of ankle and knee in the participants’ non-dominant legs for observation of changes due to AFOs placed on the dominant leg. A second test examined one of the participants as a pilot for the examination of the degree of symmetry among the participants’ legs by analyzing the angles of knee and ankle in both legs simultaneously. The data shows the non-dominant leg ankle range of motion (ROM) to increase as AFO stiffness increases on the dominant leg, with the largest difference from the control being over 10%. As examined through the respiratory exchange ratio, there are consistent increases as AFO stiffness increases, signifying increased energy expenditure. Lastly, the gait symmetry experiment resulted in correlation values that show applying AFOs to healthy individuals negatively impacts gait symmetry. While limited to a specific population, this study provides the rationale and experimental processes for studying gait symmetry and non-dominant leg reactions in response to AFO placement through motion capture analysis and energy expenditure.