Characterising patterns of muscle activation in stroke patients during walking

Stroke affects approximately 100,000 people per year in the UK and can result in long term motor dysfunction. The qualities of differing therapies, to improve motor function, are rarely assessed quantitatively as gait analysis facilities are prohibitively costly, complex and inappropriate for everyday clinical use.

Thus we are developing a system to assess the gait of a stroke patient through measuring muscle activity, motion and plantar pressure. Electrical muscle activity, using through surface electromyography (sEMG) tells us how the patient achieves their pattern of walking, and thus can be related to the motion of the limbs. Different patients will have similar gait deficits visually, even though their underlying problems could be very different.

We wish to classify these different underlying problems.

Customer
Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury, UK and Bournemouth University, UK