Contribution of new techniques to study the gait in old populations

For several years, the concept of "physiological senile gait" has been strongly contested and seems to be associated with abnormal gait. Indeed, some changes characteristic of senile gait appear early on in subjects with neurodegenerative pathologies. The aim of this article was to determine how recent contributions can improve the study of gait in old populations. This paper is a thematic review of recent contributions from medical imaging techniques as well as instrumental gait analysis techniques in older adults. This article did not focus on Parkinson's disease or other specific diseases bearing certain gait disturbances, since they belong to literature focusing on these particular disorders.

This work was not intended as a systematic review but only as a thematic one conducted by geriatricians in order review the recent literature in order to better apprehend how new technics could be implemented within their clinical practice. Articles were selected in online Medline and Cochrane Library databases, and some were previously identified by the authors.

This paper highlights the most recent contributions in magnetic resonance imaging, functional magnetic resonance imagery, positron emission tomography and instrumental gait analyzing devices better understanding the underlying gait mechanisms in elderly populations.

This thematic review suggests that gait could be considered as a marker of "successful aging". Its evaluation associated to longitudinal follow-up could be useful to predict cognitive and functional changes in frail older adults.