Gait and step training to reduce falls in Parkinson's disease.

Introduction: Frequent falls and risk of injury are evident in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) as the disease progresses. There have been no reports of any interventions that reduce the incidence of falls in idiopathic PD.

Purpose: Assess the benefit of gait and step perturbation training in individuals with PD.

Differential responses to measures of gait performance among healthy and neurologically impaired individuals.

Objectives: To compare gait during a 5-minute walk among healthy individuals, persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), and stroke survivors and to investigate whether simultaneous measures of oxygen consumption enhance information about performance.

Design: Descriptive study.

Setting: Veterans Affairs medical center.

Performance-based gait tests for acute stroke patients.

Objective: Qualitative measures may not differentiate severity of deficits after an acute or subacute stroke. The aim of this study was to contrast the utility of performance-based gait tests with qualitative measures in a sample of acute stroke patients.

Design: Twenty acute stroke subjects had their performance-based gait measured by gait speed, walking distance, gait energy expenditure, and gait energy cost.

Gait outcomes after acute stroke rehabilitation with supported treadmill ambulation training: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Objective: To investigate gait outcomes with supported treadmill ambulation training (STAT) associated with regular rehabilitation in acute stroke survivors.

Design: Randomized controlled trial, pilot study.

Setting: Rehabilitation medicine service at a Veterans Affairs medical center.