Fourier analysis of ground reaction forces in normals and patients with knee joint disease

Fourier analysis was performed on the ground reaction force patterns during gait in 26 normals and 10 patients with knee joint disease prior to total knee replacement. A method was developed to determine the essential number of harmonics for each force component, based on data sampling rate and the level of accuracy required in reconstructing the original patterns. The criteria used to select the level of accuracy depend upon the type of analysis to be performed. Only the first two to four harmonics, plus the constant term, were found to be the dominating coefficients in describing each of the reaction force patterns, and they are subsequently used as the key parameters in differentiating normals and patients with knee joint disease. The advantages of this method and its implication to objective gait analysis in biomechanics are discussed.