FUNCTIONAL REACH TEST: MOVEMENT STRATEGIES IN ELDERLY AND DIABETIC NEUROPATHIC SUBJECTS

Functional Reach (FR) is a simple clinical measure developed by Duncan et al. in 1990 to estimate the dynamic balance in the elderly at risk of recurrent falls. FR has been defined as the maximal distance one can reach forward beyond arm’s length while maintaining a fixed base of support in the standing position [Duncan, 1990]. Previous works showed as FR is not able to differentiate healthy elders from individuals with balance impairments [Wernick- Robinson, 1999]. More information can be obtained from this motor task if it can be described looking at the kinematic behaviour [Cavanaugh, 1999] and at the motor strategies employed. The purposes of this study is to describe the principal parameters that characterized the FR test in elderly and diabetic neuropathic subjects, and to investigate the presence of different movement strategies used by these two categories of subjects

FUNCTIONAL REACH TEST: MOVEMENT STRATEGIES INELDERLY AND DIABETIC NEUROPATHIC SUBJECTS

Functional Reach (FR) is a simple clinical measure developed by Duncan et al. in 1990 to estimate the dynamic balance in the elderly at risk of recurrent falls. FR has been defined as the maximal distance one can reach forward beyond arm’s length while maintaining a fixed base of support in the standing position [Duncan, 1990]. Previous works showed as FR is not able to differentiate healthy elders from individuals with balance impairments [Wernick- Robinson, 1999]. More information can be obtained from this motor task if it can be described looking at the kinematic behaviour [Cavanaugh, 1999] and at the motor strategies employed. The purposes of this study is to describe the principal parameters that characterized the FR test in elderly and diabetic neuropathic subjects, and to investigate the presence of different movement strategies used by these two categories of subjects

Approximate entropy on posturographic data of diabetic subjects with peripheral neuropathy.

Posturographic time series (stabilogram) analysis is characterized by the difficulty to show the nature (deterministic or stochastic) of this signal. However, recent studies have shown a nonlinear chaotic behaviour of the stabilogram . Because of the intrinsic complexity of the stabilogram, the aim of this work is to analyze posturographic data without anyconsideration on their dynamics and to investigate their behaviour in terms of regularity and complexity. These latter characteristics can be useful to find differences, due to pathological conditions, in the signals dynamics. The variations of regularity and complexity in physiological signals can be revealed by Approximate Entropy (ApEn) . In this work ApEn has been evaluated for stabilograms related to diabetic subjects with Peripheral Neuropathy and to diabetic control subjects