GAIT ABNORMALITIES IN CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

To evaluate our clinical impression that patients with the chronic fat igue syndrome (CFS) did not walk normally, we assessed gait kinematics at slow walking speeds (i.e., 0.45, 0.89 and 1.34 m/sec) and 30 m run time speeds on CFS patients and on a comparison group of sedentary co ntrols. Run time was significantly slower for CFS than control subject s (p < 0.001). There was a significant interaction (p < 0.01) between group and speed for maximum hip angle during stance and swing phase wi th hip angle being significantly larger at 1.34 m/sec for CFS than con trols subjects for both cases (p < 0.05). Knee flexion during stance a nd swing phases was significantly larger for controls than CFS subject s at 0.45 m/sec (p < 0.01). Ratio of stride length divided by leg leng th was significantly larger for the control subjects than for the CFS subjects with differences occurring at 0.45 and 0.89 m/sec (p < 0.01) but not 1.34 m/sec. The data indicate that CFS patients have gait abno rmalities when compared to sedentary controls. These could be due to b alance problems, muscle weakness, or central nervous system dysfunctio n; deciding which will require further research. Evaluation of gait ma y be a useful tool to measure outcome following therapeutic interventi ons.