ALTERATIONS IN WEIGHT-TRANSFER CAPABILITIES IN ADULTS WITH HEMIPARESIS

Background and Purpose. The purposes of this study were (1) to examine the position and displacement in the frontal plane of the body's cent er of mass (CM) with respect to the base of support during single-leg flexion movements in adults with hemiplegia and (2) to examine their r elationship with other clinical scores. Subjects. Fourteen ambulatory adult volunteers with hemiparesis of the right side of the body due to cerebrovascular accident participated in the study. Methods. Subjects performed single-leg flexion movements with the paretic and nonpareti c limbs while standing on two separate force platforms. Motion analysi s and force platform data were used to determine the displacement of t he CM. Results. Successful performance of the transfer and holding sin gle-limb stance occurred for 48% (to the nonparetic side) and 20% (to the paretic side) of the trials. Lack of success was due to insufficie nt displacement of the CM (26% of the trials to the nonparetic side an d 17% of the trials to the paretic side) or a failure to maintain sing le-limb stance (26% of all trials to the nonparetic side and 63% of th e trials to the paretic side). Overall, the final position of the CM w ith respect to the single-limb support region did not differ between s ides. Successful performance was highly to moderately associated with clinical assessment scores for motor function and balance. Its associa tion with gait velocity, however, was poor. Conclusion and Discussion. A classification scheme that can distinguish between four categories of bipedal to single-limb stance transitions has been established. Iss ues concerning clinical assumptions pertaining to the relationship bet ween static and dynamic motor dysfunction in adults with hemiparesis a re discussed. [Pai Y-C, Rogers MW, Hedman LD, Hanke TA. Alterations in weight-transfer capabilities in adults with hemiparesis. Phys Ther. 1 994;74:647-659.]