The Timed Up & Go test (TUG) is functional test and is a part of routine clinical examinations. The instrumented Timed Up & Go test enables its segmentation to sub-tasks: sit-to-stand, walking forward, turning, walking back, stand-to-sit, and consequently the computation of task-specific parameters and sub-tasks separately. However, there are no data on whether walking forward parameters differ from the walking back parameters. This study tested the differences between walking forward and walking back in the TUG extended to 10 m for 17 spatio-temporal gait parameters. All parameters were obtained from a GAITRite® pressure sensitive walkway (CIR Systems, Inc.). The differences were assessed for healthy controls and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. None of investigated parameters exhibited a difference between both gait subtasks for healthy subjects group. Five parameters of interest, namely velocity, step length, stride length, stride velocity, and the proportion of the double support phase with respect to gait cycle duration, showed a statistically significant difference between gait for walking forward and walking back in PD patients. Therefore, we recommend a separate assessment for walking forward and walking back rather than averaging both gaits together.

Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University and General University Hospital Prague Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Czech Technical University Prague nam Sitna 3105 Czech Republic

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