Gait pattern in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

We investigated the gait pattern of 21 patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), compared to 10 healthy controls through 3D Gait Analysis. An overall observation of gait pattern in our DMD patients when compared to controls confirmed the data previously reported for small dystrophic groups. An excessive anterior tilt of pelvis and abnormal knee pattern in loading response phase were found. Since during the swing phase the DMD foot is too plantarflexed, patients adopt a higher flexion and abduction of the hip in order to advance the swinging limb. Velocity and cadence of DMD patients resulted similar to those calculated for healthy subjects, whereas stride length was reduced and step width was increased. We then divided the DMD patients in to two subgroups (treated with steroids and untreated), and we observed that the only statistically significant differences between the two groups in Gait Analysis parameters were found for the maximum of ankle power. 3D Gait Analysis gives objective and quantitative information about the gait pattern and the deviations due to muscular situation of DMD subjects; being our study a single moment evaluation, it is otherwise unable to unravel changes only detectable through serial analysis during the time course of the disease and, if any, due to the treatment.