INTRODUCTION: Patients with peripheral obstructive arterial disease (POAD) and intermittent claudication (IC) present difficulty in gait performance and alterations in the spatio-temporal parameters of gait, even in the absence of pain. AIM: to assess the spatio-temporal of gait parameters of patients with POAD and IC participants in a rehabilitation program. METHODS: The sample was composed of 12 patients with POAD and IC, being 75% males and mean age of 63.3 8.6 years. All patients participated in a rehabilitation program and presented gait improvement after treatments; seven patients were long-term assessed (from six to 24 months) and five patients were short-term assessed (two months). Velocity, step length and cadence were assessed before and immediately after claudication began on a 6-m paper track. Claudication was induced by gait on treadmill. Evaluations were performed at the end of the treatment and inter and intra-groups assessment was carried out. RESULTS: Gait velocity (1.06 m/s 0.29 vs 1.10m/s 0.06) step length (1.34 m 0.27 vs 1.33m 0.11) and cadence (93.81 steps/min 7.20 vs 99.84 steps/min ± 8.99) were similar between groups short and long-term treated (p> 0.05). In intragroup assessment, significant decrease was observed in the step length of patients short-term treated after claudication induction (1.34m ± 0.27 vs 1.09m ± 0.03) with p = 0.05. CONCLUSION: No significant differences were observed in the spatio-temporal parameters of gait between groups. The gait characteristics remain, even in the absence of pain and with gait performance improvement with patients participating in rehabilitation programs.
atherosclerosis; intermittent claudication; rehabilitation; gait
