OBJECTIVE To evaluate the specific effects of balance and gait exercises among frail elderly individuals. DESIGN A randomized three-group parallel controlled study. SETTING Geriatric health services facility in Japan. SUBJECTS Thirty-four frail elderly subjects attending the care facility were randomized into a control group, an exercise group with emphasis on balance or an exercise group...

BACKGROUND The addition of functional electrical stimulation (FES) to treadmill gait training with partial body weight support (BWS) has been proposed as a strategy to facilitate gait training in people with hemiparesis. However, there is a lack of studies that evaluate the effectiveness of FES addition on ground level gait training with BWS, which is the most common locomotion surface. OBJEC...

BACKGROUND Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is becoming an accepted treatment method for enhancing gait performance in patients who present with gait difficulties resulting from hemiparesis. The purpose of this study was to test whether individuals with hemiparesis who have varied gait speeds, which place them in different functional categories, benefit to the same extent from the applic...

Quantitative gait analysis can provide a description of joint kinematics and dynamics, and it is recognized as a clinically useful tool for functional assessment, diagnosis and intervention planning. Clinically interpretable parameters are estimated from quantitative measures (i.e. ground reaction forces, skin marker trajectories, etc.) through biomechanical modelling. In particular, the estima...

BACKGROUND Functional decline is a primary risk factor for institutionalization and mortality among older adults. Although community-based fall risk reduction programs have been widely disseminated, little is known about their impact on gait speed, a key indicator of functional performance. Changes in functional performance between baseline and post-intervention were examined by means of timed ...

This paper reports on a functional evaluation of prosthetic feet based on gait analysis. The aim is to analyse prosthetic feet behaviour under loads applied during gait in order to quantify user benefits for each foot. Ten traumatic amputees (six trans-tibial and four trans-femoral) were tested using their own prosthetic foot. An original protocol is presented to calculate the forefoot kinemati...

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most effective methods of treatment of severe hip osteoarthritis (HOA). In many cases pathological gait patterns persist despite properly conducted surgery and disturb the normal wear of the artificial joint surfaces. The aim of the study was to conduct functional and biomechanical assessment of gait in a patient after bilateral THA due to severe degen...

Gait speed and gait variability are clinically meaningful markers of locomotor control that are suspected to be regulated by multiple supraspinal control mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between these gait parameters and the functional connectivity of brain networks in functionally limited older adults. Twelve older adults with mild-to-moderate cognition "...

Objectives: Motor weakness is a notable symptom after stroke. Hence, the aim of this study was to find out the effect of bilateral quadriceps training compared to that of unilateral quadriceps training on balance, functional mobility and functional gait in patients with stroke. Subjects: Male and female hemiparetic patients between 40-60 years of age with post-stroke of 1-6 months were included...