A novel experimental setup for evaluating the stiffness of ankle foot orthoses

A novel experimental setup for evaluating the stiffness of ankle foot orthoses

The purpose of this study was the construction of a new semi-automated experimental setup for the evaluation of the stiffness of ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) around an axis aligned to the anatomical ankle joint during the second rocker of the gait. The setup, developed in close collaboration with the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC research notes Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 649
Main Authors: Ielapi, A, Vasiliauskaite, E, Hendrickx, M, Forward, M, Lammens, N, Van Paepegem, W, Deckers, J P, Vermandel, M, De Beule, M
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 05-09-2018
BioMed Central
BMC
Subjects:
Additive manufacturing
Ankle
Ankle foot orthosis (AFO)
Ankle Joint
Automation
Belgium
Biomechanical Phenomena
Design specifications
Equipment Design
Experimental setup
Feet
Female
Foot
Foot Orthoses
Gait
Humans
Male
Mechanical properties
Medical equipment
Orthopedic appliances
Orthotic Devices
Orthotics
Patients
Physiological aspects
Range of Motion, Articular
Reproducibility of Results
Research Note
Stiffness
Belgium
Ankle foot orthosis (AFO)
Stiffness
Experimental setup
Gait
Orthotics
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Summary:The purpose of this study was the construction of a new semi-automated experimental setup for the evaluation of the stiffness of ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) around an axis aligned to the anatomical ankle joint during the second rocker of the gait. The setup, developed in close collaboration with the orthopedic device company V!GO NV (Wetteren, Belgium), allows measurement of plantarflexion and dorsiflexion in the sagittal plane for a maximal range of motion of 50° (- 25° plantarflexion up to 25° dorsiflexion) in a non-destructive way. The mechanical properties of four 3D printed AFOs are investigated, based on the ranges of motion derived from the gait assessment of the patients when they walked with their AFO. The reliability of the stiffness measures was studied by the evaluation of the test-retest repeatability and the intra-tester and inter-tester variability. These studies revealed that the ankle stiffness can be measured with high reliability (ICC = 0.94-1.00). The obtained outcomes indicate that the experimental setup could be applied to measure the ankle stiffness of any topology of AFOs and, in the future, help finding the correlation with the information coming from the gait assessment of the patients.
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ISSN:1756-0500
1756-0500
DOI:10.1186/s13104-018-3752-4