Accuracy of the functional method of hip joint center location:​ effects of limited motion and varied implementation

Piazza, Stephen J.; Okita, Noriaki; Cavanagh, Peter R.

Affiliations

¹Center for Locomotion Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

²Department of Kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

³Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

⁴Department of Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

⁵Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

⁶Department of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA

⁷Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA

Abstract

Accurate location of the hip joint center is essential for computation of hip kinematics and kinetics as well as for determination of the moment arms of muscles crossing the hip. The functional method of hip joint center location involves fitting a pelvis-fixed sphere to the path traced by a thigh-fixed point while a subject performs hip motions; the center of this sphere is the hip joint center. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential accuracy of the functional method and the dependence of its accuracy on variations in its implementation and the amount of available hip motion. The motions of a mechanical linkage were studied to isolate the factors of interest, removing errors due to skin movement and the palpation of bony landmarks that are always present in human studies. It was found that reducing the range of hip motion from 30° to 15° did significantly increase hip joint center location errors, but that restricting motion to a single plane did not. The magnitudes of these errors, however, even in the least accurate cases, were smaller than those previously reported for either the functional method or other methods based on pelvis measurements of living subjects and cadaver specimens. Neither increasing the number of motion data observations nor analyzing the motion of a single thigh marker (rather than the centroid of multiple markers) was found to significantly increase error. The results of this study (1) imply that the limited range of motion that is often evident in subjects with hip pathology does not preclude accurate determination of the hip joint center when the functional method is used; and (2) provide guidelines for the use of the functional method in human subjects.

Links

DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9290(01)00052-5

PubMed: 11410180

WoS: 000169800500014

History

Accepted: 2001-03-6

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2010	Jani D, Chawla A, Mukherjee S, Goyal R, Khatri R, Vusirikala N, Jayaraman S. Repositioning the human body FE model at the hip (femuropelvic) joint. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 15-17, 2010; Hannover, Germany.207-210.
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2003	Besier TF, Sturnieks DL, Alderson JA, Lloyd DG. Repeatability of gait data using a functional hip joint centre and a mean helical knee axis. J Biomech. August 2003;36(8):1159-1168.
2005	Reinbolt JA, Schutte JF, Fregly BJ, Koh BI, Haftka RT, George AD, Mitchell KH. Determination of patient-specific multi-joint kinematic models through two-level optimization. J Biomech. March 2005;38(3):621-626.
2006	Ehrig RM, Taylor WR, Duda GN, Heller MO. A survey of formal methods for determining the centre of rotation of ball joints. J Biomech. January 2006;39(15):2798-2809.
2007	Harrington ME, Zavatsky AB, Lawson SEM, Yuan Z, Theologis TN. Prediction of the hip joint centre in adults, children, and patients with cerebral palsy based on magnetic resonance imaging. J Biomech. 2007;40(3):595-602.
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