Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 2, 2025
Clinical-oriented Three-dimensional Gait Analysis Method for Evaluating Gait Disorder
Published on: March 4, 2018
ACROMORFO study: gait analysis in a cohort of acromegalic patients
V Cimolin1,2, C Premoli3, G Bernardelli4,5
1Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milan, Italy.
Insights
Acromegaly patients exhibit altered gait patterns, increasing fall risk. Disease remission improves walking, suggesting rehabilitation can enhance quality of life.
Area of Science:
- Endocrinology
- Orthopedics
- Biomechanics
Background:
- Acromegaly is linked to skeletal issues, reduced quality of life, and a higher risk of falls.
- Quantitative gait analysis offers a method to assess movement abnormalities in acromegaly.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantitatively assess movement patterns in acromegaly patients using gait analysis.
- To evaluate the impact of disease activity (active, controlled, remission) on gait parameters.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-three acromegaly patients (active, controlled, remission) and 20 healthy controls underwent 3D gait analysis.
- Kinematic data were collected and processed to calculate the Gait Profile Score (GPS) for overall gait deviation.
Main Results:
- Acromegaly patients displayed longer stance phases and higher GPS scores compared to controls.
- Gait abnormalities were most pronounced in active disease, improving with control and remission.
- Active disease patients showed significant differences in hip rotation, ankle dorsiflexion, and foot progression.
Conclusions:
- Acromegaly patients exhibit quantitative gait alterations indicative of instability and increased fall risk.
- Factors like arthropathy and hyperkyphosis may contribute to gait impairment.
- Disease control and remission correlate with improved postural balance and gait, highlighting potential for rehabilitation to reduce falls and enhance quality of life.
Purpose:
In acromegaly, skeletal complications resulted to be associated with low quality of life (QoL) and high risk of falls. The aim of the present study was to perform a quantitative assessment of movement through gait analysis technique in patients with acromegaly.
Study Population:
Thirty-three acromegalic patients [9 with active disease (AD), 14 with controlled disease (CD) and 10 with disease remission (RD)] and 20 healthy subjects were enrolled for the study.
Measurements:
Kinetic and kinematic data were collected with 3D-gait analysis. Kinematic data were processed to compute the Gait Profile Score (GPS), a parameter that summarizes the overall deviation of kinematic gait data relative to unaffected population.
Results:
The acromegalic group showed longer stance phase duration (p < 0.0001) compared to controls. The GPS and several gait variable scores resulted to be statistically higher in the acromegalic group compared to healthy controls. GPS values were significantly higher in AD compared to CD (p < 0.05) and RD groups (p = 0.001). The AD group presented significantly higher values in terms of hip rotation and ankle dorsiflexion compared to CD and RD groups and with regard to the foot progression compared to RD. Interestingly, patients with RD exhibited a more physiological gait pattern.
Conclusion:
Acromegalic patients showed quantitative alterations of gait pattern, suggesting instability and increased risk of falls. Arthropathy, along with its associated abnormal joint loading, proprioceptive impairment and hyperkyphosis could be contributing factors. Disease control and remission appear to improve postural balance. A better knowledge on walking performance in acromegaly would help to develop specific rehabilitation programmes to reduce falls' risk and improve QoL.
