Instrumented gait characteristics and short-term changes after CAREN training in ischemic stroke: a pilot study

Abstract

Background Hemiplegic gait disturbance after ischemic stroke severely impairs patients’ mobility; however, existing tools still have limitations in both comprehensive evaluation and routine clinical application. Methods This study enrolled 15 patients with ischemic stroke and 15 healthy controls, and collected gait parameters using the CAREN system. Among these participants, 5 patients completed a 5-day continuous training regimen and participated in a longitudinal before-after comparison analysis. Results Baseline measures revealed pathological gait patterns. Post-intervention, step width, stride symmetry, and moment profiles showed short-term improvement trends. Conclusion The CAREN system can objectively quantify gait abnormalities in stroke patients and capture short-term change trends, providing a reproducible instrumental gait assessment framework. This study is exploratory in nature, its independent efficacy requires validation through large-sample randomized controlled trials. Clinical Trial Registration http://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2600129541.