The Effect of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury on Turning Smoothness

摘要: MethodsAs part of a larger IRB-approved protocol, 16 healthy controls and 10 mTBI subjects provided informed written consent and walked around a turning course for 150 seconds for each condition. The two conditions were normal and fast walking. The turning course consisted of turns of varying angles. Each subject was tested at an acute time point (within 2 weeks of receiving an mTBI) and then tested again three months later. Kinematic data were recorded from inertial measurement units (IMUs, APDM Opals, Portland, OR), and smoothness of axial rotation was quantified using log dimensionless jerk from the angular velocity data in the transverse (yaw) plane, along with the average lap completion time [4]. Movements with less jerk are described as being smoother. A linear mixed model was fit for the outcome measure of smoothness with fixed effects of lap time, mTBI, time (ie, visit), the group* time interaction …