Correlation of knee extension force and torque with gait speed in patients with stroke

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine and compare among 26 patients with stroke the correlations between gait speed and static knee extensor muscle force (KEMF) and between gait speed and knee extensor muscle torque (KEMT) that were either normalised or not normalised against (divided by) body weight. The gait speed of the patients was determined as they walked an 8-metre expanse of floor. Their KEMF was measured bilaterally with an Ametek hand-held dynamometer. Their KEMT was calculated from their KEMF measurement and also measured bilaterally directly with a Cybex II isokinetic dynamometer. All the KEMF and KEMT measures (normalised and not normalised) of the paretic side were correlated significantly (P<0.01) with gait speed (r = 0.603-0.677). The measures on the non-paretic side were not correlated significantly with gait speed. On the paretic side, the correlations between gait speed and KEMF and gait speed and KEMT did not differ significantly. Normalisation of the KEMF and KEMT measures did not affect significantly their correlations with gait speed. The results indicate no superiority of KEMT over KEMF or of normalised over non-normalised strength measures based on their correlations with gait speed in stroke patients. Clinicians using hand-held dynamometers may not need to take the extra time to calculate torque from their force measurements or to normalise them against body weight.