Quantitative evaluation of the hemiparesis status for a poststroke patient is still challenging. This study aims to measure and\ninvestigate the dynamic muscle behavior in poststroke hemiparetic gait using ultrasonography. Twelve hemiparetic patients\nwalked on a treadmill, and EMG, joint angle, and ultrasonography were simultaneously recorded for the gastrocnemius medialis\nmuscle. Pennation angle was automatically extracted from ultrasonography using a tracking algorithm reported previously. The\ncharacteristics ofEMG, joint angle, and pennation angle in gait cyclewere calculated for both (affected and unaffected) sides of lower\nlimbs.The results suggest that pennation angle could work as an importantmorphological index to continuousmuscle contraction.\nThe change pattern of pennation angle between the affected and unaffected sides is different from that of EMG. These findings\nindicate that morphological parameter extracted from ultrasonography can provide different information from that provided by\nEMG for hemiparetic gait.
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