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Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Clinical-oriented Three-dimensional Gait Analysis Method for Evaluating Gait Disorder
Published on: March 4, 2018
Musculoskeletal and Gait Characteristics in Patients with Stickler Syndrome: A Cross-Sectional Study
Juan José Fernández-Pérez1, Paloma Mascaraque-Ruiz2, Carlos Martín-Gómez2,3
1Toledo Physiotherapy Research Group (GIFTO), Faculty of Physiotherapy and Nursing, Castilla la Mancha University, 45004 Toledo, Spain.
Background:
Stickler syndrome (SS) is a connective tissue disorder of fibrillary collagen with very variable clinical manifestations, including premature osteoarthritis and osteopenia. This musculoskeletal alteration may affect gait maturity or produce strength difficulties.
Objective:
Our aim was to describe the musculoskeletal characteristics, bone stiffness, gait kinematics, and kinetics of SS patients.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study of children and youngsters with SS recruited by telephone calls through the Spanish SS Association. All participants underwent an analysis of musculoskeletal characteristics, including a 3D gait analysis.
Results:
The sample included 26 SS patients, mainly boys (65.4%) with a median age of 11 (IQR 5-14). The manual muscle testing was normal in 88.5% of patients. The median distance covered in the 6-min walking test was 560.1 ± 113.4 m. Bone stiffness index scores were 70.9 ± 19.7 for children under 10 years and 88.3 ± 17.5 for children older than 10 years. The gait indicators GPS and GDI were: 7.4 ± 1.9 and 95.3 ± 9.7, respectively, for the left side and 6.8 ± 2.0 and 97.7 ± 9.5 for the right side, respectively.
Conclusions:
In our series of patients with SS, we found muscle-articular involvement does not have a high impact on strength or gait problems. More work is needed to understand the effect of SS on the musculoskeletal system.
