The effect of physical intervention programmes on coordination quality of the lower limbs in persons with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Introduction: For many years, MS patients have been advised to avoid physical activity, because symptoms may worsen with an elevated body temperature. However recent research has shown beneficial effects of exercise training in MS. The present study investigates the coordination quality in terms of stability and accuracy of bilateral leg movements in MS patients before, during and after 20 weeks of exercise therapy. Methods: Thirty-three MS patients (EDSS) score between 1.5-6.5 were included in this study. Subjects were stratified by EDSS score and randomly assigned to a MS control group (CO, N=8) or one of three interventions groups: resistance training group (RES, N=9), resistance training + electro stimulation group (RES+ES, N=8), or whole body vibration group (WBV, N=8). The intervention programs consisted of 50 training sessions. The CO group did not participate in any training program. This abstract will only discuss data at baseline and after a 10-week period of intervention as the complete training period is not yet finished. Data analyses focused on the relative phasing between the limbs. Two movement patterns: in-phase relative phase Ö = 0° and anti-phase relative phase Ö = 180° were studied at 0.75 Hz,1.00 Hz, 1.25 Hz and1.50 Hz respectively. Results: There was no obvious effect of the different intervention programs on the motor performance scores. In all groups, in-phase coordination was performed with higher accuracy (AE=8.70°) and stability (SD=11.11°) than anti-phase movements (AE=13.43°, SD=17.50°) at all frequencies. This study shows that different forms of strength training do not influence the phasing accuracy and stability of in-phase and anti-phase coordination patterns in MS patients. These preliminary results should be considered with reservation, because a small increase in strength was achieved after the first intervention period. Therefore it is possible neural enhancements did not occur yet that allow to improve coordination.