Postural stability assessment is an important task that has found widespread medical and therapeutic applications. Typically, balance measurement systems are used for this purpose. The quantitative score of postural balance is very important in determining improvement of the patients suffering from balance disorder. Postural stability of humans is highly dependent on the position of centre of pressure of the body. The analysis of sway of a human body can be successfully done by studying oscillations of its centre of pressure. The distribution of foot pressure over different regions namely medial—lateral and anterior— posterior, governs the balance of the posture in both directions.

The aim of this study is to assess quantitative changes in the postural stability of patients suffering from balance disorders after providing them biofeedback based balance training.

We used Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs) to sense the magnitude of forces acting at various points of both the feet. The centre of pressure is determined using the positions of various force points and magnitude of the force acting on them. The higher capability of the body to remain at that position implies higher postural stability and a lower power of sway. The force sensors produce signal proportional to the magnitude of the foot pressure. This signal after being collected by the Data Acquisition Board is fed to the system for calculating the centre of pressure and drawing a real time graph. Different algorithms are used to determine its mean position and compare the stability. The repeated analysis shows the amount of change in patient's postural behaviour, before and after the training.

Until the publication of this research work, analysis of the data of 4 patients was performed. Post intervention trials resulted in higher scores of their postural performance. Hence, favourable results were obtained showing improvement in postural stability of the patients.

Wider variety of ataxia patients can be chosen to perform this assessment. The system is capable of determining a quantitative score of improvement of the postural stability and thus can be used to assess the postural performance of patients suffering from different postural disorders.

Bari S, Saxena S, Sherwani K, Kumar N, Dhillon MS. Effect of Balance Training on Postural Analysis of Patients suffering from Balance Disorders: A Preliminary Report. J Postgrad Med Edu Res 2017;51(4):170-174.