Relations between 6 minute walking distance and 10 meter walking speed in patients with multiple sclerosis and stroke.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between a short walking test and a long walking test in patients with walking disability due to multiple sclerosis (MS) or stroke. DESIGN Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING University hospital and sport science department. PARTICIPANTS Patients with MS (n=38), patients with stroke (n=48), and healthy subjects (n=46). Patients were participants in other clinical trials. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Walking speed in a 10m walk test and a 6 minute walk test was compared. RESULTS Despite differences in absolute walking speed between long and short tests, strong correlations were found between both the tests in patients with MS (r=.95) and in patients with stroke (r=.94), whereas a more moderate correlation was found in healthy controls (r=.69-.70). CONCLUSIONS Our findings show that walking speeds of a short walking test and a long walking test are strongly correlated in both patients with MS and patients with stroke, whereas correlations in healthy subjects are weaker.

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