ESMAC Award: Can transverse plane rotations be estimated from video tape gait analysis?

The use of video tape in gait analysis is widespread and is frequently used when more sophisticated 3-dimensional analysis systems are not available or cannot be used. Its major shortcoming however is that it does not readily yield information about rotations in the transverse plane which may be amongst the most diagnostically significant features of pathological gait. This paper describes an inexpensive device which may be used, in conjunction with video taping, to aid visual estimation of transverse plane rotations, and quantifies the accuracy with which this was done by experienced observers.