摘要：Longitudinal changes in walking efficiency were examined by physiological cost index (PCI) among eight hemiplegic outpatients who were instructed to perform outdoor walking of over 15 min twice a day for seven months. The initial PCI values of the patients were 0.57±0.31 in comfortable walking and 0.73 ±0.38 in maximal walking, which were significantly higher than those of healthy subjects (p<0.01). After 7-month habitual exercise, the PCI values were decreased by 19.3% in comfortable walking and by 27.4% in maximal walking. This suggests that walking efficiency of hemiplegic patients may be elevated by habitual exercise.
关键词：hemiplegic patients; physiological cost index (PCI); walking ability; habitual exercise
