Reliability of gait temporal distance measures in normal subjects with and without EMG electrodes

The purpose of this study was to determine if surface or wire electrodes had any effect on the ability of normal adults to produce a steady gait pattern. Six temporal distance measurements were collected from 10 normal adults with and without EMG electrodes attached during two sessions approximately 1 week apart. The first session used surface electrodes and the second session used wire IM electrodes. The results showed high ICC values between passes for five of six temporal distance measures for the three electrode conditions (surface, wire, none), indicating that there is a high reliability in temporal distance measures when using the footswitch based recording system developed for our laboratory. Comparison using a multivariate ANOVA showed no significant difference between wire, surface, and the no electrode condition for all six measures.