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Updated: May 11, 2026
Sit-to-stand-and-walk from 120% Knee Height: A Novel Approach to Assess Dynamic Postural Control Independent of Lead-limb
Published on: August 30, 2016
Relationship between proprioception at the knee joint and gait ataxia in HSAN III
Vaughan G Macefield1, Lucy J Norcliffe-Kaufmann, Felicia B Axelrod
1School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. v.macefield@uws.edu.au
Background:
Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type III features marked ataxic gait that progressively worsens over time. We assessed whether proprioceptive disturbances can explain the ataxia.
Methods:
Proprioception at the knee joint was assessed using passive joint angle matching in 18 patients and 14 age-matched controls; 5 patients with cerebellar ataxia were also studied. Ataxia was quantified using the Brief Ataxia Rating Score, which ranged from 7 to 26 of 30.
Results:
Neuropathy patients performed poorly in judging joint position: mean absolute error was 8.7° ± 1.0°, and the range was very wide (2.8°-18.1°); conversely, absolute error was only 2.7° ± 0.3° (1.6°-5.5°) in the controls and 3.0° ± 0.2° (2.1°-3.4°) in the cerebellar patients. This error was positively correlated to the degree of ataxia in the neuropathy patients but not the cerebellar patients.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that poor proprioceptive acuity at the knee joint is a major contributor to the ataxic gait associated with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type III.
