Visual assessment of hemiplegic gait following stroke: pilot study.

A form that will guide clinicians through a reliable and valid visual assessment of hemiplegic gait was designed. Six hemiplegic patients were filmed walking along an instrumented walkway. These films were shown to three physiotherapists who used the form to rate the patients' gait. Each physiotherapist rated the six patients at both stages of recovery, repeating this a further two times. This resulted in 108 completed forms. Within-rater reliability is statistically significant for some raters and some individual form sections. Between-rater reliability is significant for some sections. Detailed analysis has shown that parts of the form have caused reduced reliability. These are mainly sections that ask for severity judgments or are duplicated. Some indication of normal gait should be included on the form. To test validity fully the form should be tested on a group of patients who all have significant changes in each objective gait measurement.