Can a linear combination of gait principal component vectors identify hip OA stages?

Several individual gait variables (i.e. joint moments or angles) demonstrated differences between healthy and moderately and/or severely affected subjects. Only the hip adduction moment could discriminate between the healthy and the early-stage OA group. There was no variable that could distinguish between all OA disease stages. In contrast, the linear combination of PC vectors demonstrated significant group differences between all stages of osteoarthritis; furthermore, these group differences stayed significant when matched speeds were input to the model.