Türkan Akın, Tarık Duksal
Anatolian Current Medical Journal - 2025;7(6):868-873
Aims: We aimed to discuss gait and balance conditions and their impact on overall functional independency among the patients suffering from muscular pathologies, a subgroup of neuromuscular diseases (NMD). Methods: The retrospective, cross-sectional trial consists of analyzing demographical data, manual muscle testing (MMT) and functional assessments of Barthel Index for activities in daily living, Tinetti Gait and Balance test, Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and functional ambulation classification (FAC) for gait analysis. Descriptive statistics of demographics and correlation analysis between functional tests to evaluate interchangeable use of them were performed in the article. Results: A total of forty-six patients were enrolled in the study. Mean age of patients was 35.4+/-18.1 years. Gender distribution ratio was 20(47.8%)/24(52.2%) as female/male respectively. Means of functional scores including Barthel, FAC, Tinetti Gait and Balance Test, TUG, MMT scores of lower extremity showed significant correlation both at the 0.01 and 0.001 levels (2-tailed) after Spearman Correlation Analysis. Moreover regression models resulted in interchangeable use of Tinetti, MMT and FAC to predict functionality which was determined by Barthel Index. Conclusion: Gait analysis, which is an essential examination tool in NMD, has significant correlation and predicting role on functional independency. For this purpose it is favorable to use FAC, Tinetti Gait and Balance tests and MMT.
