Background/Purpose Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a vascular disease that results in intermittent claudication (IC) which is pain during walking. While mobility problems in PAD patients are attributed to IC, PAD patients have altered gait variability patterns prior to IC. Thus, this study a) investigated whether induced occlusion alters gait variability patterns and b) compared gait variability of PAD patients with healthy subjects following induced ischemia.
Method Thirty healthy controls walked on a treadmill while kinematics were collected during baseline and post induced occlusion conditions. The latter condition was collected following three minutes of occlusion, induced via inflated thigh blood pressure cuffs (200 mmHg pressure). Thirty PAD patients also walked on the treadmill with and without IC. Gait variability was determined from the kinematics of the lower extremity joint angles.
Analysis/Results Gait variability changes from baseline to post occlusion were assessed using dependent t-tests and differences between groups and conditions were assessed using a two-way ANOVA (PAD vs. controls X baseline/pain free vs. post occlusion/pain induced). Gait variability patterns demonstrated altered variability in controls post occlusion. Gait variability was altered in PAD patients as compared to controls, and in the post occlusion/pain induced condition as compared to the baseline/pain free condition.
Conclusions Induced occlusion altered gait variability patterns in healthy individuals. However, the change in gait variability of PAD patients was more severe than that of healthy controls post occlusion. Accordingly, further study is needed to determine how other neuromuscular problems contribute to alterations in gait variability due to PAD.