Walking cycle after stroke.

Temporal-distance parameters of gait, maximum walking speed, walking rate and stride length, were successively examined in 10 hemiparetic stroke patients for 8 weeks after starting gait training. In patients with walking speed less than 20 m/min i.e., walking rate less than 90 steps/min, the increase of walking speed was significantly related to that of walking rate and stride length. In patients with walking speed greater than 20 m/min, the increase of walking speed correlated only to that of stride length, indicating that a limiting factor of walking speed in hemiparetic patients was the decreased stride length.