Frontal Plane Motion of the Pelvis and Hip during Gait Stance Discriminates Children with Diplegia Levels I and II of the GMFCS

Objective. To determine if gait waveform could discriminate children with diplegic cerebral palsy of the GMFCS levels I and II. Patients. Twenty-two children with diplegia, 11 classified as level I and 11 as level II of the GMFCS, aged 7 to 12 years. Methods. Gait kinematics included angular displacement of the pelvis and lower limb joints during the stance phase. Principal components (PCs) analyses followed by discriminant analysis were conducted. Results. PC1s of the pelvis and hip in the frontal plane differ significantly between groups and captured 80.5% and 86.1% of the variance, respectively. PC1s captured the magnitude of the pelvic obliquity and hip adduction angle during the stance phase. Children GMFCS level II walked with reduced pelvic obliquity and hip adduction angles, and these variables could discriminate the groups with a cross-validation of 95.5%. Conclusion. Reduced pelvic obliquity and hip adduction were observed between children GMFCS level II compared to level I. These results could help the classification process of mild-to-moderate children with diplegia. In addition, it highlights the importance of rehabilitation programs designed to improve pelvic and hip mobility in the frontal plane of diplegic cerebral palsy children level II of the GMFCS.