Influence of different hardness surfaces on gait coordination in functional ankle instability / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the influence of different hardness surfaces on gait coordination in patients with functional ankle instability(FAI). Methods Qualisys Infrared Optical Motion Capture System was used to test the coordination and variability of 15 FAI patients on the right side at Nanjing Normal University from May to July,2023.The gait cycle data were collect-ed and intercepted,and coupling angle(CA)and standard deviation of coupling angle(SDCA)were calculated by Matlab to compare the differences on different hardness surfaces. Results On coronal plane,CA of hip-ankle joint was higher on the hard surface than on the soft surface during middle stage of support and early stage of swing,and lower on its rest stages and the gait stages of hip-knee joint and knee-ankle joint than on the soft surface(P<0.01).On sagittal plane,CA of hip-ankle joint and knee-ankle joint was smaller on the hard surface than on the soft surface during middle and late stages of support,and larger than on the soft surface during their rest stages,and the gait stages of hip-knee joint(P<0.01).On horizontal plane,CA of hip-knee joint was lower on the hard surface than on the soft surface during the late stage of support,and higher than on the soft surface during its early stage of swing and bearing stage of hip-ankle joint(P<0.01).Compared with the hard surface,SDCA was smaller on the soft surface than on the hard surface only in the hip-ankle on the sagittal plane and during bearing stage of hip-knee joint,and was greater than on the hard surface for the rest(P<0.01). Conclusion FAI patients showed more distal dominance on soft surface than on hard surface during most gait cycle on 3D plane,i.e.,advantage of ankle varus and plantar flexion increased,and advantage of hip joint decreased;the coordination variability was generally higher on soft surface than on hard surface.These findings suggested that FAI patients may increase the risk of recurrent lateral ankle sprain walking on soft surface.