Temporal Gait Measures Associated With Overground and Treadmill Walking in Rett Syndrome

Rett syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder leading to intellectual impairment and global developmental delays, including difficulty or inability to walk. Assessing differences in temporal parameters and associated variability between overground and treadmill walking is important if gait training is to be incorporated into intervention protocols. Fourteen female patients with Rett syndrome (mean age 10.4 years ± SD 5.1) were evaluated during overground and treadmill walking. Stride, stance, swing, and double support times, and the variance of these measures, were obtained. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to assess for potential differences between overground and treadmill measures. Treadmill gait resulted in decreases in swing and double support times. When normalized to stride time, treadmill gait displayed an increase in stance time with decreases in swing and double support times. Excepting stance time, treadmill gait resulted in decreased variability, indicating a more regularized gait while walking on the treadmill. These results suggest that treadmill walking can be beneficial for ambulatory patients with Rett syndrome and could be incorporated into a therapeutic protocol designed to maintain the maximum degree of mobility and overall general health as part of a comprehensive health management approach.