Stair ascent and descent at different inclinations
Introduction
Stairs are frequently encountered obstacles in daily living. Although healthy persons climb stairs quite easily, this movement task is quite demanding when motor functions are reduced, for example in elderly or obese subjects, women during pregnancy, subjects affected by muscle or joint diseases as well as subjects with joint or limb replacements. The analysis of biomechanical and motor control aspects involved in stair ascent and descent can add to our understanding of the diverse and complicated processes involved in human locomotion and also be useful in the design of private and public environments where stairs are employed. Another application is in the field of gait rehabilitation. For instance, a comprehensive movement analysis of stair climbing can support the evaluation of joint replacement or prostheses development.
Several studies were performed to investigate normal human stair ascent and descent [1], [2], [3]. Recently, some researchers focused on the analysis of joint moments [4], joint powers [5], plantar pressure characteristics [6] and reproducibility [7] that occur during staircase walking. Some studies also exist that investigate stair climbing of patients with knee [8] and hip [9] implants, amputees with artificial limbs [10], [11] or athletes with anterior cruciate ligament deficiencies [12].
However, no comprehensive analysis is available in the literature that discusses biomechanics of stair ascent and descent at different inclinations, although staircase slope proves to be an important characteristic affecting temporal and kinematic gait parameters [13] and hip/knee extensor activity [14] at varying step heights. Since previous studies [13], [14] are restricted to rather specific issues, our study is a broader attempt to face the question of how staircase inclination affects the kinematic and kinetic patterns of stair climbing and to ascertain if ascent and descent patterns are to be considered as particular evolution of the level walking pattern. This knowledge can, for example, serve as a reference for the imitation of natural motor control strategies in intelligent prostheses applied to walking on different terrain.
Section snippets
Instrumented staircase design
A staircase was developed that allowed the collection of kinetic data for multiple steps at different staircase inclinations [15]. It was composed of four steps and a platform at the upper end that was adjustable in height (Fig. 1). The lower three steps were instrumented with six strain-gauge force transducers each. The three components of the ground reaction force, the vertical component of the ground reaction moment and the location of the centre of pressure (COP) on the step surface were
Gait cycle parameters
The stance phase was between 59.6 and 63.7% of the stride duration (Table 1). During descent, stance duration percentage progressively decreased with increasing inclinations, while during ascent, the stance duration changed (increased) only slightly with stair inclinations. Differences were also observed in the stride cycle durations. They were significantly longer during ascent (1.40–1.47 s) than descent (1.19–1.22 s). They exhibited a tendency to increase with increasing inclination only
Differences between ascent and descent
A fundamental consideration, already pointed out in the work of McFadyen and Winter [2], is that the ascending task consists primarily of a transfer of muscle energy into potential (gravitational) energy of the body, whereas during descent, the potential energy has to be dissipated (absorbed) by the muscles. During descent, this process is achieved first by a transfer of potential energy into kinetic energy. This takes place during the swing phase, which is a rather ballistic movement, since
Acknowledgements
This work has been partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG/SFB 462 ‘Sensomotorik’) and the TMR-Neuros project of the EU. The authors thank M. Recalcati, J. Meyer, T. Fuhr, Professor G. Schmidt and Professor A. Pedotti for their support in this study.
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