Is the gait profile score a good marker of gait dysfunction in individuals with late effects of poliomyelitis?

Late effects of poliomyelitis (LEoP) are characterized by new gait abnormalities that occur many years after the initial poliomyelitis illness. Currently, there is no consensus on the most appropriate evaluation to detect gait disorders following LEoP. This study aimed to assess and compare the effectivenes of the gait profile score with that of the symmetry index (SI) to charaterize gait abnormalities resulting from the LEOP. The SI for stance, swing, double-support duration and the step length, and gait profile score were computed from gait analysis of 12 poliomyelitis subjects and 12 healthy participants. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to measure the sensitivity and specificity of the SI and the gait profile score to discriminate patients with the LEoP and healthy participants. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was calculated for both gait the profile score and SI. With AUC values all above 0.83 (good discrimination), SI and GPS significantly discriminated the participants with the LEoP from the healthy participants (all p- values < 0.001). The results of this study show that both the gait profile score and SI may be used with a similar sensitivity by clinicians to identify potential gait abnormalities in patients with the LEoP.