Development and validation of a user-friendly data logger (SUDALS) for use with flexible electrogoniometers to measure joint movement in clinical trials

Our aim was to develop and validate a user-friendly data logger system (SUDALS) for use with flexible electrogoniometry. Data pertaining to flexion/extension of the knee from 10 normal subjects were collected during a range of activities of daily living (ADL) such as walking, ascending and descending stairs, getting in and out of a chair and deep squatting. The accuracy, reliability and reproducibility of the data from SUDALS were verified by comparing against the data simultaneously collected from the Vicon system. The results of these studies indicate that the SUDALS together with flexible electrogoniometers is able to produce stable, precise, accurate and repeatable knee flexion/extension angles with little variation existing between the data produced by the SUDALS, the Vicon system and that reported in the literature. The SUDALS together with flexible electrogoniometers is a useful clinical tool, capable of recording knee flexion/extension angles accurately during ADL.