Shoe-Type Wearable Sensors Measure Gait Parameters in Vestibular Neuritis: A Preliminary Study

Cha, Jun Sang; Kim, Dong Young; Lee, Hye Soon; Kim, Nambeom; Lee, Hwan Ho

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Despite patients with dizziness were reported of revealing gait problems, there is still lack of objective quantitative measurement of gait patterns of peripheral vestibular disorders. To demonstrate gait variability in acute unilateral peripheral vestibular deficit, we evaluated the differences in gait patterns between vestibular neuritis (VN) patients and healthy subjects by the use of shoe-type inertial measurement unit (IMU) with sensors mounted.
METHODS
Between April 2017 and January 2019, 30 patients diagnosed with unilateral peripheral vestibular deficit presumed to be caused by VN were enrolled in this study. The shoe-type IMU was used to analysis subjects. We assessed gait speed, cadence, stride length, stance phase, normalized stride length, normalized step length, phase coordination index and gait asymmetry of data from shoe-type IMU sensors with the walking protocol. We tested 30 healthy volunteers as control group.
RESULTS
We identified spatiotemporal parameters of human gait. The gait speed of patients with VN was decreased to 3.82±0.8 compared to 4.93±1.08 in control group. In addition, there were differences in normalized stride length, normalized gait speed and related gait parameters, when comparing VN group and control group.
CONCLUSION
Gait analysis by the use of shoe-type IMU could provide important information regarding vestibular pathophysiology in patients with VN. Gait performance tests can examine gait variability quantitatively. It will be taken into consideration as a vestibular function test for patients with vertigo.