Walking-induced muscle fatigue impairs postural control in adolescents with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy

Vitiello, D., Pochon, L., Malatesta, D., Girard, O., Newman, C.J. and Degache, F. (2016) Walking-induced muscle fatigue impairs postural control in adolescents with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 53-54 . pp. 11-18.

Abstract

Background
Fatigue is likely to be an important limiting factor in adolescents with spastic cerebral palsy (CP).

Aims
To determine the effects of walking-induced fatigue on postural control adjustments in adolescents with unilateral CP and their typically developing (TD) peers.

Methods
Ten adolescents with CP (14.2 ± 1.7 yr) and 10 age-, weight- and height-matched TD adolescents (14.1 ± 1.9 yr) walked for 15 min on a treadmill at their preferred walking speed. Before and after this task, voluntary strength capacity of knee extensors (MVC) and postural control were evaluated in 3 conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC) and with dual cognitive task (EODT).

Results
After walking, MVC decreased significantly in CP (−11%, P < 0.05) but not in TD. The CoP area was only significantly increased in CP (90%, 34% and 60% for EO, EC and EODT conditions, respectively). The CoP length was significantly increased in the EO condition in CP and TD (20% and 21%) and was significantly increased in the EODT condition by 18% in CP only.

Conclusions
Unlike TD adolescents, treadmill walking for 15 min at their preferred speed lead to significant knee extensor strength losses and impairments in postural control in adolescents with unilateral spastic CP.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publisher:	Elsevier
Copyright:	© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/45569

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