Original articleProposal and Validation of a New Functional Ambulation Classification Scale for Clinical Use
Section snippets
Methods
Thirty-one poststroke hemiplegic patients with secondary gait disorders were assessed with this classification system. Patients included in the study had to have had a stroke within the past 2 years, and their gait disorder had to have been a result of the stroke only. Patients whose gait alteration was associated with other health problems, such as cardiac or respiratory insufficiency, fractured hip, and coxarthrosis, were excluded. The patients were diagnosed by a neurologist who followed the
Results
The average age ± standard deviation (SD) of the 31 poststroke hemiplegic patients (20 men, 11 women) was 64±7.8 years. The hemiparesis was on the right side in 18 patients (58%) and on the left in 13 (42%). The type of stroke was ischemic in 29 patients (93.5%) and hemorrhagic in 2 (6.5%). Nine patients (29%) needed assistive devices, such as canes in 1 case (3.2%), crutches in 5 cases (16.1%), and walkers in 3 cases (9.7%). Two patients used ankle-foot orthoses. The average age of the 5
Discussion
The results show that our classification system is reliable and has good agreement among the examiners, both globally and in the different categories, except for level 3 (ambulation about the house and neighborhood). This result is not surprising if we take into account how this particular level is defined. The functional levels 0, 1, 2, and 5 were directly observed by the examiner in the clinic. However, designating a subject as walking at level 3 or 4 (community ambulation) will depend on the
Conclusions
We have shown that our proposed functional ambulation classification is both reliable and valid to assess walking ability at clinical admission and follow-up. It is an adequate, user-friendly tool that is easier to use than measuring walking velocity. It offers wide application possibilities and practical utility.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Foreign Language Co-ordination Office at the Polytechnic University of Valencia for its help in revising this article.
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