Treadmill training for ataxic patients: a single-subject experimental design
- 5 December 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Clinical Rehabilitation
- Vol. 22 (3), 234-241
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215507081578
Abstract
Objective: To investigate changes in gait quality, balance and mobility associated with treadmill training for ataxic individuals. Design: Single-subject ABA design. Baseline phases (A) lasted three weeks and intervention (B) lasted four weeks. Setting: University rehabilitation clinic. Subjects: A woman (25 years) and a man (53 years) with chronic ataxia due to head trauma. Intervention: Three 20-minute treadmill training sessions each week with progression in velocity and step length. Main measures: Rivermead Visual Gait Assessment, Timed Up and Go, time to complete a balance task, walking speed, cadence, and stride length assessments three times a week during the 10 weeks. Data were analysed with the celeration line technique and two standard deviation band. Results: Both individuals demonstrated gains in all parameters over initial baseline and subsequent phases, with performance increases ranging from 26% to 233% when first and last assessments were compared. Significantly superior effects of treadmill training over baseline conditions on cadence were detected (P<0.05). Gains in walking speed were not significantly better during intervention, but intervention withdrawal produced deceleration of performance gains. Gains in Timed Up and Go, step length and balance were not consistent and were possibly caused by a learning effect of the association between repeated testing and treadmill training. Rivermead Visual Gait Assessment gains reached significance only for subject 2 (P<0.05), probably because of increased variability of performance of subject 1. Results suggest that the association between repeated testing and treadmill training might have been responsible for the observed gains in the two ataxic patients.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cerebellar Control of Balance and LocomotionThe Neuroscientist, 2004
- Decreased Ataxia and Improved Balance after Vestibular RehabilitationOtolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, 2004
- Immediate effects of speed-dependent treadmill training on gait parameters in early Parkinson’s diseaseArchives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2003
- Optimal outcomes obtained with body-Weight support combined with treadmill training in stroke subjectsArchives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2003
- A treadmill and overground walking program improves walking in persons residing in the community after stroke: a placebo-controlled, randomized trialArchives Of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2003
- Reliability of treadmill exercise testing in older patients with chronic hemiparetic strokeArchives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2003
- Typical features of cerebellar ataxic gaitJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2002
- Mechanisms of AtaxiaPTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal, 1997
- International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale for pharmacological assessment of the cerebellar syndromeJournal of the Neurological Sciences, 1997
- The Timed “Up & Go”: A Test of Basic Functional Mobility for Frail Elderly PersonsJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 1991