Pages 19–26 Reliability of measures of gait performance and oxygen consumption with stroke survivors

Abstract—This study assessed the reliability of gait perform-ance with concurrent measures of oxygen consumption (VO2) in stroke survivors (SS). Nine male SS (60.00 ± 15.08 yr) had a recent history of stroke (44.56 ± 51.35 days since the stroke) and were receiving rehabilitation. Four had a right cerebrovas-cular accident (CVA), and five had a left CVA. Subjects walked without assistance, although three used a single cane to com-plete the test. Within 30 minutes, subjects completed two trials of a 5 min walk while walking back and forth on a 5 m walk-way wearing a portable gas analyzer to collect samples of gases. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess reliability. The ICC for gait energy expenditure, walk distance, gait speed, and gait energy cost were 0.64, 0.97, 0.95, and 0.97, respectively. Assessment of gait performance with concurrent measures of VO2 is a reliable procedure with SS