Maximum voluntary weight-bearing by the affected and unaffected legs in standing following stroke

Objective. To compare stroke patients to control subjects for ability to transfer body weight onto the affected and unaffected leg in standing; to investigate intra-session reliability. Design. Comparative clinical study conducted within a single session. Background. There is a paucity of quantitative data about maximum voluntary weight-bearing in patients during rehabilitation following stroke. Methods. A Kistler force platform was used to quantify maximum amount of body weight transferred to a single limb in the lateral and forward directions during weight-shifting. Twelve control subjects matched by gender and age (median 64 years) were compared to 12 inpatient stroke patients after a median of 37 days post-onset. Results. The median score for control subjects was approximately 95% of body weight to each leg in both directions. In contrast, stroke patients transferred less body weight (P < 0.01) to the affected leg (65.5% lateral; 54.9% forward) and also to the unaffected leg (85.0% lateral; 80.1% forward). For the stroke patients, transfer of body weight was more challenging in the forward direction than the lateral direction on the affected leg (P < 0.05). Relative to individual differences in the stroke group, error due to the repeated measurement process was low. Conclusion. The testing procedure was found to discriminate between stroke patients and control patients and had high retest reliability within a single session.