Assessment of gait direction changes during straight-ahead walking in healthy elderly and Huntington Disease patients using a shank worn MIMU

The aim of this study was to propose and comparatively evaluate four methods for assessing stride-by-stride changes of direction of progression, during straight walking using measurements of a magnetic and inertial unit placed above the malleolus. The four methods were evaluated by comparing their estimate of the gait changes of direction of progression with that obtained from an instrumented gait mat used as a gold standard. The methods were applied to the data obtained from the gait of both healthy subjects and patients with Huntington Disease, the latter characterized by a jerky swing phase. The results showed that the errors associated to the best estimates of the gait direction changes were about 10% of its range of variability for the healthy subjects and increased to about 30% for the patients, both walking at comfortable speed when the range of variability is the largest. Additional testing on gait at various radius of curvature should be carried out to fully validate the MIMU-based estimates.