Laura Peeters

88 | Chapter 4 CONCLUSION Trunk capacity (joint torque and active ROM) is reduced in DMD patients compared to HC. They used compensatory lateral bending and trunk flexion-extension movements to accomplish daily tasks, in combination with increased normalized muscle activity. The compensatory movements did not significantly increase more with task difficulty (e.g. increasing object weight) compared to HC and also did not increase with Brooke scale, although differences could be seen. Percentage of muscle capacity used was higher in patients with DMD for all muscles and in all tasks, which could result in early development of muscle fatigue. Clinical interventions are necessary to reduce the muscle fatigue, like development of dynamic assistive devices or implementing proper seating. However, (compensatory) trunk movements should not be restricted because this will likely lead to limitations in accomplishing tasks independently. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL See online version of this article at https://doi.org/ 10.1186/s12984-019-0515-y or scan the QR code.