Article

The purpose of the study was to compute Virtual Time to Contact (VTC)
from stabilometric assessment to study balance impairments in people with
multiple sclerosis (PwMS). To this purpose we assessed the ability of VTC to
discriminate between balance skills of PwMS and healthy subjects (HS), among
sensory conditions and between fallers and non fallers. METHODS: VTC was
calculated to characterize balance performance in 47 PwMS and 13 HS in four
different sensory conditions during quiet standing. Main Outcome Measures were
VTC, Number of falls, Berg Balance Scale and Dynamic Gait Index. RESULTS: The
results showed that VTC was able to discriminate between PwMS and HS (p < 0.0001)
and between challenging sensory conditions (p < 0.0001), no relevant information
was added by VTC in the detection of subjects prone to falls. CONCLUSION: VTC
provides unique information with respect to balance control because it takes into
account the relationship between centre of mass (CoM) and the borders of base of
support (BoS). VTC proved to be a valid descriptor of balance performance in PwMS
highlighting balance disorders in this population of subjects, however models for
falls prediction have to be improved.

Langue : ANGLAIS