Functional roles of ankle and hip sagittal muscle moments in able-bodied gait

Sadeghi, Heydar; Sadeghi, Somayeh; Prince, Francois; Allard, Paul; Labelle, Hubert; Vaughan, Christopher L.

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Volume 16, Issue 8 , Pages 688-695, October 2001

Functional roles of ankle and hip sagittal muscle moments in able-bodied gait

Heydar Sadeghi
- Research Centre, Sainte-Justine Hospital, 3175 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Que., Canada H3T 1C5
- Marie-Enfant Rehabilitation Centre of Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Que., Canada
- Department of Kinesiology, Tarbiat Moallem University, Ministry of Culture and Higher Education, Tehran, Iran
- Corresponding author
Somayeh Sadeghi
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Que., Canada
Francois Prince
- Research Centre, Sainte-Justine Hospital, 3175 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Que., Canada H3T 1C5
- Marie-Enfant Rehabilitation Centre of Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
Paul Allard
- Research Centre, Sainte-Justine Hospital, 3175 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Que., Canada H3T 1C5
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
Hubert Labelle
- Research Centre, Sainte-Justine Hospital, 3175 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Que., Canada H3T 1C5
- Marie-Enfant Rehabilitation Centre of Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Que., Canada
Christopher L. Vaughan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa

Received 3 October 2000; accepted 12 June 2001.

Abstract

Objective. The main objectives of this study on able-bodied gait were (a) to identify the main functions of the ankle and hip muscle moments and their contribution to support and propulsion tasks, and (b) to illustrate the interaction between the ankle and hip moment activities.

Design. Twenty young, able-bodied male subjects walked along a 13 m path at a freely chosen speed.

Background. Functional contributions of the ankle and hip muscles and their interactions in achieving support and propulsion tasks during gait are still subject to controversy.

Methods. Principal component analysis was applied as a curve structure detection method to identify the main functional characteristics of the ankle and hip muscle moments. The first two principal components which contained over 70% and 85%, respectively, of the information in the ankle and hip moment curves revealed their functional tasks. Ankle versus hip moment plots was used to illustrate the interactions between muscles acting at the hip and ankle in the sagittal plane. Correlation coefficient and covariance calculations quantified the interaction between the ankle and hip moments.

Results. The first principal component revealed that the main role of the ankle and hip is to keep the body from collapsing. The second principal component is associated with the functional contribution of both ankle plantarflexors and hip flexors during the propulsion phase (50–60% of the gait cycle). High coordination (r=0.82) between the ankle and hip moments was observed.

Conclusion. Maintaining body support against gravity was identified as the first functional task of the ankle plantarflexors and hip extensors, while contribution to propulsion was recognised as the second major role for the ankle plantarflexors and hip flexors.

Relevance

Identifying the main roles of the muscles acting at the hip and ankle during able-bodied walking provides better insight into how pathological gait should be evaluated.

Keywords: Biomechanics, Gait, Ankle, Hip, Muscle moment, Principal component analysis, Diagram-to-diagram analysis