Abstract
This study was conducted to present a feasible method to assess gait characteristics using a body-mounted IMU applied to clinically validated six-minute walking test (6MWT) in a hospital. We quantified the improvement of walking performance objectively in the lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) patients before and after surgery. Spatiotemporal gait factors were estimated from the measures of IMU, with algorithms of processing only steady walk periods from the over ground shuttle-walking trial. Subsequently, three-dimensional rotation angles of the upper body were calculated to evaluate regional amounts of postural sway during walking. Presumably, variations in gait factors or postural walk performance were characterized as an expression of improvements in comparison with LSS patients before and after surgery.