Segment angle. The angle of the shoulder-hip segment was examined during normal walking gait and gait with an immobilized limb. In normal walking gait, the maximum angle was twelve degrees and the minimum angle was negative fourteen degrees. The difference between these two angles (twenty six degrees) indicated the range of motion that occurred at the shoulder-hip segment. In immobilized gait, the maximum angle achieved was nineteen degrees and the minimum angle achieved was negative twenty degrees. The difference between these two angles was thirty nine degrees. These two angles showed the range of motion for the shoulder-hip segment was greater during immobilized gait.
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Figure 3. Trunk angle during normal gait (left) and gait with an immobilized knee (right). This angle was calculated between the trunk segment and a vertical axis through the hip joint which corresponds to 0 degrees. Positive values on the graph indicate clockwise rotation of the trunk and negative values indicate counterclockwise rotation. | |
Joint angle 1. During normal gait, the hip was flexed in the beginning of the movement because the movement started with heel-strike. The hip then went into flexion because the knee began to flex during the swing phase of the gait cycle. The maximum joint angle of the hip was two hundred five degrees and the minimum joint angle of the hip was one hundred eighty degrees. The range of motion that occurred at the hip joint was twenty five degrees. During gait with an immobilized limb, the hip joint returned to one hundred eighty degrees (anatomical position) from extension and never fully extended again. The maximum joint angle was one hundred ninety eight degrees and the minimum joint angle was one hundred eighty degrees. The range of motion for the hip joint angle was eighteen degrees. The range of motion of the hip was greater during normal gait than during immobilized gait.
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Figure 4. Hip joint angle in normal gait (left) and gait with immobilized knee(right). Hip joint angle is calculated as the angle between the lateral side of the trunk and lateral side of the thigh (femur). Anatomical position of the hip joint corresponds to 180 degrees, increasing angles represent flexion and decreasing angles represent extension of the hip joint. | |
Joint angle 2. The maximum angle of the ankle joint was one hundred fifty degrees (dorsiflexion) while the minimum angle was one hundred ten degrees (plantarflexion). during the normal walking gait. In gait with an immobilized limb, the maximum angle was one hundred forty degrees and the minimum angle was one hundred degrees. The range of motion of the ankle joint during normal gait and gait with an immobilized knee was forty degrees, there was no difference in the range of motion of the ankle between the two movements.
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Figure 5. Ankle joint angle in normal gait (left) and gait with immobilized knee (right). Ankle joint angle is calculated as the angle between the lateral lower leg segment (tibia/fibula) and the lateral side of the foot. Anatomical position is 135 degrees. Increasing angles correspond to dorsiflexion and decreasing angles correspond to plantarflexion of the ankle joint. | |
Joint velocity. The maximum angular velocities at the ankle were quite different. In normal gait, the maximum angular velocity was two hundred degrees per second, while the maximum velocity was four hundred degrees per second in gait with an immobilized knee. On the other hand, the minimum angular velocities were similar. The minimum velocity was three hundred degrees per second and three hundred twenty five degrees per second, respectively.
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Figure 6. Ankle joint angular velocity in normal gait (left) and gait with immobilized knee (right). Positive velocity values represent dorsiflexion. | |
Angle-Angle Plot. The coordination of the trunk and the hip joint was analyzed in this plot. During normal walking gait, the movements of the hip and trunk joint were coupled with flexion of both joints. During the gait with an immobilized limb, the trunk again moved in slight flexion while the hip moved in flexion, extension, slight abduction and slight adduction. The peak angle during normal walking gait occurred at 205 degrees of hip flexion while the peak angle during immobilized gait occurred at 196 degrees of hip flexion. The angular velocity is greatest during hip flexion for normal walking gait. During gait with an immobilized limb, angular velocity was greatest with trunk flexion.
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Figure 7. Coordination of trunk segment and hip joint angles in the normal gait (left) and gait with an immobilized knee (right). The arrows show the forward direction of the movement. | |
