Influence of treadmill velocity on joint angles of lower limbs during human gait

The paper represents a part of a study designed to assess the feasibility of gait analysis on a treadmill in relation to the treadmill velocity. The measurements were realized using Zebris measuring system CMS-HS and a commercially available Hammer Walkrunner Pro Treadmill. One young healthy volunteer (female, 27 years old) was involved in the study. To evaluate the joint angles, the investigated subject performed treadmill-based gait with eleven velocities, between 1 km/h to 5 km/h. The kinematic parameters which have been analyzed are angles of flexion-extension in hip and knee joint, angles of dorsi-plantar flexion in ankle joint, and pelvic obliquity. The variability of the joint angles was evaluated by computing the standard deviations. The gait symmetry between lower limbs for each treadmill velocity was evaluated by computing the P values of the averaged series. Concluding, the velocity changing does not modify the angular complexes but directly influences the time of the gait cycle and the angular amplitudes.