Mini-Review: Gait and balance assessment in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Gait and balance deficiencies are significant concerns for people with multiple sclerosis, resulting in reduced walking capacity, falls and poor quality of life. Issues caused by sensory loss and the inability to properly reweight sensory information are often reported. Even at the early stages of the disease, subclinical gait and balance impairments can be found.

AIM: In this article, we review objective measures used to assess gait and postural balance impairment in multiple sclerosis patients.

INTERPRETATION: Although scales and clinical tests are important tools for assessing postural instability and walking performance, they can be insensitive to minor disabilities in multiple sclerosis. Instrumented measurements, such as kinematics, kinetics, spatiotemporal gait parameters and center of pressure, play an important role in detecting impairment and evaluating the effects of interventions in people with mild to moderate multiple sclerosis. Thus, objective measurements may be more suitable for tracking deficits in gait and postural balance in multiple sclerosis, contributing to the early detection of disease symptoms, and therefore allowing for the planning of effective interventions to control the speed of disease progression.