Gait & posture
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Postural control is known to depend on sensory and cognitive factors. Little is known about how children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regulate static balance, and to what extent vision and cognition contribute to the regulation of balance in this group. We compared a group of children with mild ASD and a group of age- and gender-matched controls on various postural tasks, standing on a Wii Balance Board. ⋯ We found a greater destabilizing effect of closing the eyes (greater postural excursions in the medio-lateral direction) for the ASD group than for controls. No group differences were found on word recall and on a standardized balance test (Movement Assessment Battery for Children; M-ABC2). We suggest that the postural effects reflect tighter coupling between vision and motor adjustments in ASD than in controls, which is consistent with recent suggestions of greater reliance on vision in this group.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of progressive task-oriented training on a supplementary tilt table on lower extremity muscle strength and gait recovery in patients with hemiplegic stroke.
The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of progressive task-oriented training on a supplementary tilt table on the lower extremity (LE) muscle strength and spatiotemporal parameters of gait in subjects with hemiplegic stroke. Thirty subjects between three and nine months post stroke were included in this study. Thirty subjects were randomly allocated to a control group (CG, n1=10), experimental group I (EG1, n2=10), and experimental group II (EG2, n3=10). ⋯ The effect of tilt table applications was assessed using a hand-held dynamometer for LE muscle strength and GAITRite for spatiotemporal gait data. Our results showed that there was a significantly greater increase in the strength of all LE muscle groups, gait velocity, cadence, and stride length, a decrease in the double limb support period, and an improvement in gait asymmetry in subjects who underwent progressive task-oriented training on a supplementary tilt table compared to those in the other groups. These findings suggest that progressive task-oriented training on a supplementary tilt table can improve the LE muscle strength and spatiotemporal parameters of gait at an early stage of rehabilitation of subjects with hemiplegic stroke.
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Cross-sectional study of lumbopelvic muscle activation during rapid limb movements in chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients and healthy controls. ⋯ Our data suggest that bilateral anticipatory TrA/IO activation is a task-specific motor control strategy, appropriate for only certain rapid limb movement conditions. Furthermore, the presence of altered semitendinosus onset timing in the CLBP group during bilateral shoulder flexion may be reflective of other possible lumbo-pelvic motor control alterations among this population.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Gait and attentional performance in freezers under methylphenidate.
Attentional resources appear to be involved in the occurrence of FoG. The Parkgait study recently reported that methylphenidate reduces gait hypokinesia and freezing of gait (FoG) in advanced PD patients receiving STN-DBS in the off-dopaminergic drug condition. Methylphenidate is considered to improve attention. The primary objective of the present ancillary study was to determine whether methylphenidate reduced the interference between a cognitive task and gait in patients with FoG. The study's secondary objective was to compare attentional performance in methylphenidate-treated and placebo-treated patients. ⋯ As in the main Parkgait study, methylphenidate did not reduce gait hypokinesia in patients receiving dopaminergic treatment. Our present results suggest that the reduction in the number of FoG episodes previously observed in patients on methylphenidate was neither due to interaction between a dual-task and gait nor an increase in attentional performance.
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The Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale-12 (MSWS-12) is a multi-item rating scale used to assess the perspectives of patients about the impact of MS on their walking ability. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the MSWS-12 in Persian speaking patients with MS. The MSWS-12 questionnaire was translated into Persian language according to internationally adopted standards involving forward-backward translation, reviewed by an expert committee and tested on the pre-final version. ⋯ Factor analysis extracted 2 latent factors (79.24% of the total variance). A second factor analysis suggested the 9-item Persian MSWS as a unidimensional scale for patients with MS. The Persian MSWS-12 was found to be valid and reliable for assessing walking ability in Persian speaking patients with MS.