MULTIVARIATE GRAPHICAL PRESENTATION FOR GAIT REHABILITATION STUDY

This paper describes a procedure to determine the progress of the gait rehabilitation in relation to a reference obtained from a normal popu lation. This procedure includes three stages: (1) data standardization , to give time and space aspects comparable from one individual to ano ther; (2) monovariate and multivariate distance computation, to assess the difference between a disabled patient at a given time in the reha bilitation and the reference computed from individuals with a 'normal' gait; and (3) distance evolution. Since several variables are taken i nto account at the same time, the star view is proposed, each ray corr esponding to the average distance between a given function of the pati ent undergoing rehabilitation and the corresponding reference function . Thus, as the rehabilitation process progresses, the distances are re duced and the star ray decreases. As a case study, the procedure is ap plied to the rehabilitation of a patient with an anterior cruciate def icient knee. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.