Kinematic Analysis of Patients with Charcot–Marie–Tooth Disease Using OpenSim

Abstract

This study proposes a methodology for conducting computational simulations of pathological gait. The literature shows a consensus that biomechanical models for gait analysis should be formulated as control problems. To achieve this, it is common prac-tice to guide the solution using kinematic or kinetic data to prevent temporal instabil-ity. The aim of this study is to implement a biomechanical model of the Charcot-–Marie-–Tooth disease in OpenSim software that enables more comprehensive simula-tions, which may in future involve the musculoskeletal system of patient and predic-tive studies. In this way, it will be possible to design specific active assistive devices tailored to each patient. Experimental gait data from six Charcot-–Marie-–Tooth pa-tients were used. The dataset comprises three-dimensional trajectories of reflective markers placed according to the Davis-Heel protocol. The acquired data allowed a pa-tient-specific adjustment of the biomechanical model. The inverse kinematic was solved, and the results were validated by comparing them with those obtained using the commercial BTS Bioengineering® software. The results show a strong alignment in ankle kinematics between the OpenSim model and the data generated by BTS Bioengi-neering®. Additionally, the kinematic results have been compared with normative curves, allowing the identification of potential areas for intervention using active as-sistive devices aimed at improving movement patterns of patients.