Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
201,818 studies31 sourcesUpdated 37 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Infant limb kinematics and muscle force variation during kicking is associated with clinical cerebral palsy risk measures

  • Nidal S. Khatib1
  • Luca J. Schmidtke2
  • Anna Lukens3
  • Tomoki Arichi4
  • Silvia Muceli5
  • Etienne Burdet6
  • Bernhard Kainz7
  • Niamh C. Nowlan8
8 affiliations
  1. 1School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
  2. 2School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
  3. 3Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
  4. 4Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
  5. 5Dept. AIBE, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
  6. 6Neonatal Unit, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom
  7. 7Early Life Imaging Research Department, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
  8. 8MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

Early limb motor development progresses from spontaneous to increasingly complex movements. Restricted movement variety in infancy can indicate neuromotor impairment associated with cerebral palsy (CP) risk. The General Movement Optimality Score (GMOS) used in clinic detects abnormal movement patterns, but requires highly trained physiotherapists, limiting accessibility. Objective biomechanical measures may provide quantitative predictors of CP risk, reducing clinical burden while offering novel physiotherapeutic targets. This study investigated whether variation in lower limb kinematics and muscle forces during spontaneous kicking is reduced in infants with lower GMOS scores, indicating higher CP risk. We also examined whether variation correlates with gestational and corrected age, reflecting the transition to more complex movements. Twenty-six Infants aged 0–3 months underwent wired electromagnetic motion capture (Polhemus Liberty System) with musculoskeletal modelling to estimate kinematics and muscle force waveforms, alongside GMOS scoring. Waveform variation was quantified using functional principal component analysis and correlated with GMOS scores and age, while partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) identified biomechanical predictors of GMOS indications of ‘normal’ versus ‘poor repertoire’ (PR) movements. Variation in knee flexion, hip flexion and abduction kinematics, and rectus femoris, pectineus, biceps femoris and gemelli forces significantly correlated with GMOS scores. Gestational age correlated with hip abduction, ankle dorsiflexion, and gemelli and medial gastrocnemius forces. PLS-DA achieved 85% accuracy distinguishing normal from poor repertoire movements, with knee and hip kinematics and biceps femoris force as key discriminators. These findings demonstrate that lower limb kinematic and neuromuscular variation aligns with clinical motor assessments, supporting their potential as objective biomechanical markers of CP risk.

Related

  1. Predictive Contribution of Clinical Measures of Ankle Neuromuscular Impairments to Ankle Kinematic Deviations During Gait in Children With Cerebral Palsy.
    Faustyna Manikowska, Sabina Brazevic, Brian Po-Jung Chen +2
    Journal of foot and ankle researchPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textPsychiatry & mental healthEurope PMC
  2. Frontal Cerebral Blood Flow Deficits in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia: Associations With Clinical Symptoms, Peripheral Vascular Biomarkers, and Neuroimaging Measures.
    Jiahui Hou, Qianqian He, Xiuxia Fu +5
    CNS neuroscience & therapeuticsPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textPsychiatry & mental healthEurope PMCPMC
  3. Blood transcriptional variation is associated with clinical and neuroimaging phenotypes in essential tremor
    Thomas Welton, Thomas Wei Jun Teo, Ebonne Yulin Ng +6
    Scientific ReportsPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textNeurologyCrossref
  4. Resistance to thyroid hormone alpha associated with a novel THRA ligand-binding domain variant: familial clinical, biochemical, skeletal, and exploratory cerebral FDG-PET/CT metabolic findings
    Denisse Mata-Salgado, Juan José Morales-Suárez, Alfredo Adolfo Reza-Albarrán +6
    Frontiers in EndocrinologyPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textEndocrinology & metabolismPMCCrossrefEurope PMC
  5. Inequality embodied: A systematic review of the spatial and temporal variation of cortical bone health measures and socioeconomic status
    Phoebe Meyrick, Laura A B Wilson, Justyna J Miszkiewicz
    Bone ReportsPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textSurgery & anaesthesiaDOAJEurope PMCEurope PMCPMC

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{khatib2026infant,
  title = {{Infant limb kinematics and muscle force variation during kicking is associated with clinical cerebral palsy risk measures}},
  author = {Nidal S. Khatib and Luca J. Schmidtke and Anna Lukens and Tomoki Arichi and Silvia Muceli and Etienne Burdet and Bernhard Kainz and Niamh C. Nowlan},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0357214},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357214},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Infant limb kinematics and muscle force variation during kicking is associated with clinical cerebral palsy risk measures
AU  - Nidal S. Khatib
AU  - Luca J. Schmidtke
AU  - Anna Lukens
AU  - Tomoki Arichi
AU  - Silvia Muceli
AU  - Etienne Burdet
AU  - Bernhard Kainz
AU  - Niamh C. Nowlan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/08
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0357214
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357214
AB  - Early limb motor development progresses from spontaneous to increasingly complex movements. Restricted movement variety in infancy can indicate neuromotor impairment associated with cerebral palsy (CP) risk. The General Movement Optimality Score (GMOS) used in clinic detects abnormal movement patterns, but requires highly trained physiotherapists, limiting accessibility. Objective biomechanical measures may provide quantitative predictors of CP risk, reducing clinical burden while offering novel physiotherapeutic targets. This study investigated whether variation in lower limb kinematics and muscle forces during spontaneous kicking is reduced in infants with lower GMOS scores, indicating higher CP risk. We also examined whether variation correlates with gestational and corrected age, reflecting the transition to more complex movements. Twenty-six Infants aged 0–3 months underwent wired electromagnetic motion capture (Polhemus Liberty System) with musculoskeletal modelling to estimate kinematics and muscle force waveforms, alongside GMOS scoring. Waveform variation was quantified using functional principal component analysis and correlated with GMOS scores and age, while partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) identified biomechanical predictors of GMOS indications of ‘normal’ versus ‘poor repertoire’ (PR) movements. Variation in knee flexion, hip flexion and abduction kinematics, and rectus femoris, pectineus, biceps femoris and gemelli forces significantly correlated with GMOS scores. Gestational age correlated with hip abduction, ankle dorsiflexion, and gemelli and medial gastrocnemius forces. PLS-DA achieved 85% accuracy distinguishing normal from poor repertoire movements, with knee and hip kinematics and biceps femoris force as key discriminators. These findings demonstrate that lower limb kinematic and neuromuscular variation aligns with clinical motor assessments, supporting their potential as objective biomechanical markers of CP risk.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -