Application of biomechanical growth models of the quantitative evaluation of the motor system in children.

To evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation methods, and to assess the progress of the rehabilitation process in an individual patient, quantitative methods are necessary. The large number of motor system parameters makes the problem of data collection time-consuming and expensive. A quantitative evaluation of the child's motor system is an assessment of a combination of the growth and rehabilitation processes. The aim of the study was to establish methods of differentiation between these two processes. The chosen anthropometric measures, biomechanical parameters of the lower leg segment, maximal voluntary extension and flexion torques of lower leg and chosen gait parameters, were measured in various groups of healthy children 6-18 years old. Mathematical functions were calculated describing these parameters against developmental parameters (body mass, body stature, age). Using the maximal correlation criterion the best growth parameters were established. Normalized databases for these parameters were developed. It is suggested that, using their approach, differentiation between the influences of growth and rehabilitation processes can be achieved, thus eliminating the need for tedious data collection.