Stepping strategies used by post-stroke individuals to maintain margins of stability during walking.
Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon)
; 28(9-10): 1041-8, 2013.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24200373
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
People recovering from a stroke are less stable during walking compared to able-bodied controls. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how post-stroke individuals adapt their steady-state gait pattern to maintain or increase their margins of stability during walking, and to examine how these strategies differ from strategies employed by able-bodied people.METHODS:
Ten post-stroke individuals and 9 age-matched able-bodied individuals walked on the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment. Medio-lateral translations of the walking surface were imposed to manipulate gait stability. To provoke gait adaptations, a gait adaptability task was used, in which subjects occasionally had to hit a virtual target with their knees. We measured medio-lateral and backward margins of stability, and the associated gait parameters walking speed, step length, step frequency, and step width.FINDINGS:
Post-stroke participants showed similar medio-lateral margins of stability as able-bodied people in all conditions. This was accomplished by a larger step width and a relatively high step frequency. Post-stroke participants walked overall slower and decreased walking speed and step length even further in response to both manipulations compared to able-bodied participants, resulting in a tendency towards an overall smaller backward margins of stability, and a significantly smaller backward margin of stability during the gait adaptability task.INTERPRETATION:
Post-stroke individuals have more difficulties regulating their walking speed, and the underlying parameters step frequency and step length, compared to able-bodied controls. These quantities are important in regulating the size of the backward margin of stability when walking in complex environments.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Caminhada
/
Transtornos Neurológicos da Marcha
/
Reabilitação do Acidente Vascular Cerebral
/
Marcha
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Etiology_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon)
Assunto da revista:
ENGENHARIA BIOMEDICA
/
FISIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Holanda