The relationship between bilateral knee muscle strength and gait performance
after stroke: the predictive value for gait performance |
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| Authors: | Makoto Watanabe Makoto Suzuki Yuko Sugimura Takayuki Kawaguchi Aki Watanabe Kazuhiko Shibata Michinari Fukuda |
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| Affiliation: | 1) School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University, Japan;2) Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kitasato University, Japan;3) Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Kawasaki Municipal Tama Hospital, Japan;4) Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Sagamihara Chuo Hospital, Japan |
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| Abstract: | [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between bilateralknee extension strengths and gait performance in subjects with poststroke hemiparesis andto predict gait performance by the paretic and nonparetic knee extension strength.[Subjects and Methods] This was a correlational study in which 238 consecutive inpatientswith poststroke hemiparesis were enrolled. Knee extensor muscle strengths in paretic andnonparetic lower limbs were measured with a handheld dynamometer, and the presence orabsence of impaired gait was also determined. [Results] The mean strength in the pareticlower limb was 0.90 Nm/kg, and that in the nonparetic lower limb was 1.24 Nm/kg.Discriminant analysis classified the difference between the possibility and impossibilityof gait by knee extensor muscle strength (standardized discriminant coefficient: paretic,1.32; nonparetic, 0.55). Thus, paretic and nonparetic knee extension strengths wereintegrated in the strength index. A threshold level of 2.0 provided the best balancebetween positive and negative predictive values for the strength index. [Conclusion] Theresults indicated that both paretic and nonparetic knee extension strengths were relatedto gait performance. The strength index deduced from bilateral knee extension strengthsmay serve as a clinically meaningful index for rehabilitation assessment and training.Key words: Stroke, Handheld dynamometer, Gait |
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