Oxygen Cost of Walking in Hemiplegic Patients.

Abstract

A preliminary study was carried out to compare the walking speed (WS), walking distance, oxygen consumption and oxygen cost in hemiplegic patients. In the first test of 10-min walking, observation of WS and walking distance revealed the boundary areas between the patients who depended on a wheelchair (group D, n=18) and those who did not and could walk alone (group I, n=26). The boundary WS and boundary walking distance ranged from 20.1 to 30.0 m/min and from 201 to 300 meters, respectively. In the second test which focused on the boundary WS, oxygen consumption and oxygen cost of groups TI (7 patients of group I), BI (5 of group I), BD (3 of group D) and TD (3 of group D) were measured. As a result, oxygen consumption and oxygen cost of TI, BI, BD and TD were13.6, 10.0, 14.5 and 10.0 ml/kg/min and 0.351, 0.358, 0.628 and 0.779 ml/kg/m, respectively. TI walked at a speed of more than 30.1 m/min, BI and BD walked at the boundary WS, and TD walked at a speed of less than 20.0 m/min.The values of oxygen cost differed remarkably between the groups BI and BD. BI walked more efficiently than BD.