부산대학교 도서관

Locomotor disorders and impairment of gait are common in patient with chronic diseases such as Parkinson's disease or Multiple Sclerosis (MS). However, the relevance of changes of these measures in free-living situations and across prolonged observation periods has not been studied. Here, we investigated the minimal detectable change (MDC) of physical activity and gait parameters assessed by accelerometry in eleven patients with MS during their daily activities over a period of one year. MDC of maximum walking speed was constant throughout all measurements, whereas variations of MDC were observed for mean walking speed, steps per day and activity level. This variation was also associated with the patients' degrees of disability. Our findings suggest that ambulatory assessment of MDC parameters of gait may help to detect and interpret subclinical changes of motor behavior in patients with MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]