Inertial sensor-based evaluation of trunk control during gait after targeted strengthening training in facioscapulohumeral dystrophy

O. Crisafulli,¹ S. Sozzi,² M. Fortunati,^1,3 V. Quintiero,¹ S. Ramat,^2,4 M. Schmid,² G. D’Antona^1,4 | ¹Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale Attività Motorie e Sportive - Sport Medicine Centre Voghera, University of Pavia, Voghera; ²Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia; ³Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Tor Vergata, Rome; ⁴Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Italy

Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) can cause trunk muscle weakness,¹ impairing trunk control during gait.² This study evaluated the effects of a targeted strengthening training on trunk movements during gait in patients with FSHD. Fifteen patients were assessed for trunk pitch and roll angles (°) during gait before (T0) and after (T1) training. Data were collected using an inertial sensor (BTS, G-Walk)³ and compared longitudinally, as well as with 23 healthy controls (HC). At T0, patients showed significantly higher roll values than HC (p<0.01), while pitch showed a non-significant increasing trend. At T1, roll significantly decreased (p<0.05), and the difference with HC was no longer significant (p=0.18), indicating normalization toward healthy values. These preliminary data suggest that targeted strengthening may improve gait-related trunk control in FSHD, and that sensor-based gait analysis can be useful for objective clinical assessment.