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Detecting and Measuring Ataxia in Gait

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Handbook of Human Motion

Abstract

Gait ataxia is traditionally described as clumsy, staggering movements with a wide-based gait which resembles the gait of drunken people. Recent modern motion analysis systems have been used to quantitatively characterize the nature and degree of walking dysfunction. These findings have revealed that the whole range of locomotor activities is impaired, including linear steady-state gait, turning, gait initiation, and gait termination. All these locomotor abnormalities reflect poor limb coordination and impaired balance, which greatly restrict patients in their daily life activities and predispose them to falls (van de Warrenburg et al. 2005).

Detecting and measuring gait in patients with ataxia gives further insights on the motor deficit and may allow to discern the complex relationship between the primary deficits and the compensatory mechanisms, to recognize specific abnormalities and their impact on clinical decision-making, and to individualize rehabilitative treatment and better evaluating its effects over the time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Corso della Repubblica 79, 40100, Latina, Italy

    Mariano Serrao

  2. Movement Analysis LAB, Rehabilitation Centre Policlinico Italia, Piazza del Campidano 6, 00162, Rome, Italy

    Mariano Serrao & Carmela Conte

Authors
  1. Mariano Serrao
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  2. Carmela Conte
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariano Serrao .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Motion & More, Barcelona, Spain

    Bertram Müller

  2. Klinik für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgi, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

  3. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brueggemann

  4. Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  5. ACRISP, FedUniversity, Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh

  6. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  7. Research, C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, USA

    William Scott Selbie

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Serrao, M., Conte, C. (2016). Detecting and Measuring Ataxia in Gait. In: Müller, B., et al. Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_46-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_46-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

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