The purpose of the work contained in this thesis was to investigate whether experimental paradigms based on the system identification approach are an effective clinical assessment tool. This was accomplished by conducting two companion studies: a reliability study on a group of fifteen control subjects and a case study of an individual who had sustained a unilateral undisplaced ankle fracture. The data collected in both studies included ankle angular position, torque, and Tibialis Anterior and Triceps Surae electromyograms. From these data, measures of both static (e.g. range of motion) and dynamic (e.g. estimated elastic stiffness) joint function, were obtained. / A number of clinically relevant variables (plantarflexion MVC, dorsiflexion MVC, range of motion, passive torque, K offset, low K region, and the intercept of the K-absolute torque relation) were shown to be reliable. In addition, the results of the case study demonstrated that it would be feasible to use these experimental procedures and analytic methods on individuals who have sustained orthopedic trauma. Finally, certain variables (the K offset, the slope and intercept of the K-torque relation, and a low stiffness region) appeared to be sensitive to the clinical changes associated with orthopedic pathology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61268 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Morier, Rita |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Physical and Occupational Therapy.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000912617, proquestno: AAIMM75885, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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