Article

Some neurodegenerative diseases at early stage may not drastically affect basic
gait ability, whereas more demanding locomotor tasks are more prone to
disease-induced abnormalities. In this study, we evaluated the interday
test-retest reliability, 4-6 weeks apart, of instrumented movement analysis on a
group of 20 subjects with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease considering a set of
kinematic and kinetic curves and related parameters obtained during natural
walking (NW) and faster walking, heel and toe-walking, step ascending and
descending. Results showed that the reliability was good for NW, with the
exception of trunk curves, pelvic tilt and EMG profiles (moderate reliability),
and trunk ROM in sagittal/transverse plane (poor reliability). Comparing our
results with literature, CMT patients did not present a greater variability
during NW than healthy subjects or patients with diseases of CNS. Additional
locomotor tasks showed a slight reduction of reliability, although the
moderate-to-good level shown in NW was almost never reduced to poor. Most of SEM
values (absolute measurement errors) were smaller than 5 degrees , a clinically
acceptable threshold. In particular THS, an ankle joint related parameter
computed across heel and toe-walking tasks, showed an optimal reliability
(ICC=0.95, SEM=2.7 degrees ) and correlation with CMT clinical scores. Toe and
heel-walking and step ascending tasks maximised the number of parameters with a
moderate-to-good correlation with patients' clinical status. We concluded that,
in addition to natural walking, more challenging locomotor tasks are good
candidates to provide reliable and sensitive outcome measures for CMT patients.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS