http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/10/1/95/abstract
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Stroke is often associated with balance deficits that increase the risk of falls and
may lead to severe mobility disfunctions or death. The purpose of this study is to
establish the relation between the outcome of instrumented posturography and of the
most commonly used clinical balance tests, and investigate their role for obtaining
reliable feedback on stroke patients' balance impairment.
Methods
Romberg test was performed on 20 subjects, 10 hemiplegic post-stroke subjects (SS,
69.4 +/- 8.2 years old) and 10 control subjects (CS, 61.6 +/- 8.6 years old), with
1 Bertec force plate. The following parameters were estimated from the centre of pressure
(CoP) trajectory, which can be used to define subjects' performance during the balance
task: sway area; ellipse (containing 95% of the data); mean CoP path and velocity
in the anterior-posterior and medio-lateral directions. The following clinical scales
and tests were administered to the subjects: Tinetti Balance test (TB); Berg Balance
test (BBT); Time up and go test (TUG), Fugl-Meyer (lower limbs) (FM), Motricity Index
(lower limbs), Trunk Control Test, Functional Independence Measure. Comparison between
SS and CS subjects was performed by using the Student t-test. The Pearson Correlation
coefficient was computed between instrumental and clinical parameters.
Results
Mean +/- standard deviation for the balance scales scores of SS were: 12.5 +/- 3.6
for TB, 42.9 +/- 13.1 for BBT, 24 s and 75 cent +/- 25 s and 70 cent for TUG. Correlation
was found among some CoP parameters and both BBT and TUG in the eyes open and closed
conditions (0.9 <= R <= 0.8). Sway area correlated only with TUG. Statistically significant
differences were found between SS and CS in all CoP parameters in eyes open condition
(p < 0.04); whereas in eyes closed condition only CoP path and velocity (p < 0.02)
differed significantly.
Conclusions
Correlation was found only among some of the clinical and instrumental balance outcomes,
indicating that they might measure different aspects of balance control. Consistently
with previous findings in healthy and pathological subjects, our results suggest that
instrumented posturography should be recommended for use in clinical practice in addition
to clinical functional tests.
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