| Abstract: | [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to find whether a fast treadmill gait trainingspeed is effective for the gait training of stroke patients in the early rehabilitationstage. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty-nine stroke patients were the subjects of ourinvestigation. They walked on a treadmill with handrail supports at a fast speed (130% oftheir comfortable gait speed in the 2nd week). The treadmill gaits of the patients wererecorded using a 3-dimensional analysis system at two and six weeks after theiradmissions. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) of the temporal and spatialparameters of the two periods were statistically analyzed. [Results] For all of thepatients, the ICCs of the measured parameters were greater than 0.58. In the case ofpatients whose gait speeds of the two periods were close, the ICC units were greater than0.7. [Conclusion] The fast gait speed training allowed us to expose the patients to a gaitspeed that they were expected to acquire at a later stage of their rehabilitation. Thistraining method was found to be beneficial for the mildly paralyzed patients.Key words: Stroke, Treadmill, Fast speed |
