Paretic versus non-paretic stepping responses following pelvis perturbations in walking chronic-stage stroke survivors.
Juliet A M Haarman, Mark Vlutters, Richelle A C M Olde Keizer and 5 others
PMID 29029646WHAT IT FOUND
In ten chronic stroke survivors, first recovery steps after sideways pelvis pushes changed similarly with the paretic and non-paretic legs.
The paretic foot landed further from the body centre, and more time was spent on the non-paretic leg.
Key findings
01The way the first recovery foot landed changed similarly with the paretic and non-paretic legs across sideways pelvis pushes.
02The paretic leading foot was placed further to the side from the body's centre than the non-paretic leading foot.
03Participants spent more standing time on the non-paretic leg than on the paretic leg.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only ten participants were studied, and all could walk independently on even surfaces, so results may not apply to more impaired or high fall-risk patients. Participants walked on a treadmill at speeds from 0.4 to 5.0 km/h, and some trials were removed because they grabbed the handrails. The rod partly blocked right arm swing, which may have changed natural arm movement during walking. Treadmill speed was often lower than overground walking test speed, so treadmill responses may not match overground walking. Only the first recovery step was analysed, so later steps and longer reactions were not examined. Small sample and wide speed range produced variable data, making some relations hard to interpret.
Declared interests
Funding was listed as ZonMw and FP7 Information and Communication Technologies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the paretic leg cannot adjust stepping location after a sideways push. Foot placement modulation did not differ between legs in this small group, but the paretic foot was placed further from the body centre and participants spent more time on the non-paretic leg.