  | Quantification of movement abnormalities in Dravet Syndrome PI: Alessandra Del Felice Gait impairment is frequently seen in people with Dravet syndrome but little attention has been payed to this. The scarce literature on this feature reports a gait pattern, developing between ages 9 and 13 years, characterized by marked hip intra-rotation, hip and knee flexion and pelvic antiversion, described as “crouch gait”. A direct consequence of the still missing definition of gait disturbance is the lack of specific rehabilitation programs to hinder progression and optimize residual capabilities. This project aims to ascertain the walk of people with Dravet in a Gait Analysis Laboratory. This will allow to: 1) fully characterize the spectrum of gait patterns; 2) verify if and when unusual patterns develop; 3) correlate different gait patterns with clinical and laboratory data (epilepsy and drugs history, neuroimaging, neurophysiology and genetics) to speculate on possible causative factors; 4) categorization of neurocognitive impairment and its correlation to the motor domain; and 5) to develop ad-hoc rehabilitation programs. To this purpose, the gait analysis will be performed via stereophotogrammetry and force plates is used to objectively assess the patient kinematics. The high complexity of this technique and the severe cognitive impairment often hamper full instrumented analysis in cognitively impaired populations. With the aim of introducng surrogate techniques to provide informtaion on movement parameters and to broaden the populations eligible for this exams we will: collect pressure footprints via a pressure matrix, complemented with data gathered from wearable sensors, to gather data to characterize the gait pattern and abnormalities. In particular, a new methodology based on these data, already validated on normally developing children and healthy adults, quantifies the movement complexity and instability, potentially allowing also for risk of fall detection. The project sees collaboration with the Movement Antwerpen – MOVANT, Multidisciplinary Motor Centre Antwerp – M²Ocean, University of Antwerp, and the Deparetment of Engineering, University of Bologna. It is co-funded by Dravet Syndrome Italian associations. DRAVET ITALIA Onlus website: www.dravet-italia.org Gruppo Famiglie Dravet Onlus website: www.sindromedidravet.org |