Preliminary trial to increase gait velocity with high speed treadmill training for patients with hemiplegia.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether high-speed treadmill training improved the gait velocity of patients whose maximum walking speed was assumed to have reached a plateau level. The subjects included seven patients with hemiplegia after stroke. The high-speed treadmill training was performed as the maximum gait velocity of each patient was presumed to have reached a plateau level. The patients walked 20% faster than their maximum gait velocity of the day for 5 days (phase I). Then they walked 20% slower than maximum gait velocity of the day for 5 days, and they repeated the fast treadmill walking for further 5 days (phase II). Before phase I, mean maximum gait velocity of the day was 0.84 m/sec before phase I, 1.08 m/sec after phase I, and 1.24 m/sec after phase II. These results demonstrated that training at a speed 20% faster than the maximum gait velocity of the day on the treadmill for 5 days could further increase a patient's gait velocity.
Fujita Memorial Nanakuri Institute, Fujita Health University, Tsu, Mie, Japan.
Yosuke
Y
Wada
Izumi
I
Kondo
Shigeru
S
Sonoda
Hiroyuki
H
Miyasaka
Toshio
T
Teranishi
Shota
S
Nagai
Eiichi
E
Saitoh
D000054:Acceleration; D000368:Aged; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology