Mechanical energy in cerebellar gait

Cerebellar pathologies cause ataxic gait, characterized as decreased forward velocity due mainly to decreased step length, and decreased lower limb angular displacement. The latter occurs especially at the ankle joint due to muscle co-contraction. However, those characteristics are not disease specific but description of gait kinematics and fail to address causes of the abnormal interactions between body segments. Mechanical energy analysis can provided information about interactions among multiple segments and multiple joints, and thus may help illuminate the mechanisms impairing gait in patients with cerebellar pathology. Temporal parameters, kinematic, and mechanical energy data using gait trials of 30 subjects with cerebellar pathology (Cb) was compared to that of 28 healthy control subjects (HE). Cb subjects expended less ankle plantar flexor concentric energy and more hip flexor eccentric energy compared to the HE subjects. Cb subjects demonstrated increased trunk movement in the frontal plane and pelvis movement in the sagittal plane. Subjects with cerebellar pathology used hip muscular adaptation to compensate decreased ankle plantar flexor concentric energy, in addition to more energy transferred from the pelvis to the thigh. Hip muscular adaptation and increased energy transfer from pelvis to hip may assist the leg moving forward into swing phase.