Gait Perturbations to Improve Balance Post-stroke

Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal21 enrolled

Overview

Individuals with stroke have balance and gait deficits. Gait training does improve balance and gait abilities, but adding perturbations may have increase these effects. The objective was to compare the effect gait training with and without perturbations on balance and gait abilities in individuals with hemiparesis due to stroke at a chronic stage.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Hemiparesis;Poststroke/CVA

Interventions

Gait training with perturbationsDEVICE

Changes in speed of one of the belt of the split belt treadmill during swing phase

Gait training without perturbationDEVICE

Walking on a treadmill with steady belt speed

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 70 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * able to walk at a comfortable speed less than 1.0 m/s * have reduced dynamic balance capacities (as evaluated by the mini-BESTest; score below the 95% confidence interval of the mean score of the corresponding age group of normative data) * with or without a history of fall * be able to walk on a treadmill, without external support, such as handrails or walking aid, for at least 1 minute Exclusion Criteria: * hemineglect (more than 6 omissions on the bell cancellation test), * cognitive impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination score under 24/30) * uncorrected visual deficit or pathologies other than stroke which can affect their gait or balance

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Balance capacities

Score at the mini-Balance Evaluation System Test (mini-BESTest). Score between 0 and 28. Higher scores associated with better balance abilities.

Time frame: Within the week pre-training

Balance capacities

Score at the mini-Balance Evaluation System Test (mini-BESTest). Score between 0 and 28. Higher scores associated with better balance abilities.

Time frame: Within the week post-training

Gait capacities

Self-selected and fast gait speed measured over 10 meters (10 meter walking test)

Time frame: Within the week pre-training

Gait capacities

Self-selected and fast gait speed measured over 10 meters (10 meter walking test)

Time frame: Within the week post-training

Secondary Outcomes

Paretic and non-paretic maximal knee extensor strength

Measure of isometric, maximal knee extensor strength at each knee, using an instrumented dynamometer (Biodex).

Time frame: Within the week pre-training

Paretic and non-paretic maximal knee extensor strength

Measure of isometric, maximal knee extensor strength at each knee, using an instrumented dynamometer (Biodex)

Time frame: Within the week post-training

Balance confidence

Score at the Activity-specific Balance Confidence (ABC scale), between 0 and 100%, with 100% indicating better balance confidence

Time frame: Within the week pre-training

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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