Abstract
Introduction: Walking is usually negatively affected in patients with COPD because of dyspnoea. However, there are not enough studies which are focused on biomechanical changes of gait in these patients. This study aimed to evaluate basic spatial-temporal variables and foot loading in patients with COPD and healthy controls during maximal walking exercise test.
Methods: Incremental shuttle walk test (IWST) was performed twice in 17 COPD patients (FEV1=46.5%) who were randomly recruited from the Czech Multicentre research Database of COPD and 17 age-matched healthy controls (FEV1=99.4%). Better result of the two tests was used. Participants walked barefoot for the purposes of gait analysis during ISWT using pressure footscan platform (RS Scan International, Belgium). In the first 5 levels of ISWT we compared basic spatial-temporal variables and foot loading by pressure impulse (total loading), pressure peak and time of pressure peak and contact duration.
Results: Patients with COPD had significantly longer duration of double support. Across all walking speeds they had lower total loading (pressure impulse) for the hallux, the 2nd-5th toes (p < .05) and significantly higher pressure peak and later time of pressure peak in midfoot.
Conclusions: Compared with healthy controls, patients with COPD had different loading pattern characterized by more gradual loading with weaker toe off, which may suggest worse gait stability and decrease the ability of fast walking. For that reason it should be appropriate to add physiotherapy techniques focused on gait to comprehensive rehabilitation treatment in patients with COPD.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016