UNDERSTANDING ELEVATED METABOLIC COST OF ASYMMETRIC WALKING
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Date
2019-05-07
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
Humans tend to walk is ways that are generally metabolically inexpensive. Previous studies have shown that altering step length affects the energy cost associated with walking. In particular, increases in step length asymmetry have been found to increase the energy cost of walking in healthy adults.
In this thesis, we develop computerized musculoskeletal models to understand the elevated energy cost of walking during asymmetrical conditions. We explored the contributions of different muscle groups to the elevated energy cost of walking. To assess the energy cost of walking, we measured the metabolic cost of walking in healthy subjects while they walked with asymmetrical step lengths on a treadmill. We then developed musculoskeletal simulations to understand individual muscle group contributions to the metabolic cost of asymmetrical walking. We first confirmed that our simulations generated accurate estimates of metabolic cost that was measured in the laboratory. When exploring individual muscle group contributions to the total metabolic cost of walking, we found that hip abductors, knee extensors and ankle plantar flexors were identified to be the major contributors to elevated metabolic cost of asymmetrical walking. The results of this thesis suggest that simulation-based approaches may be used to study the metabolic cost of walking in patient populations characterized by gait asymmetry, such as persons post-stroke.
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opensim, metabolic cost, asymmetric walking, musculoskeletal, treadmill walking, step length