A 1-year study of gait characteristics in diabetes: The impact of rosiglitazone

Thirty subjects with diabetes (D1) and 20 control subjects (C) were followed for a period of 1 year to see if gait changed over that period, especially in the diabetic population. Twenty additional subjects with diabetes (D2) were placed on the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone (RSG) – a drug known to also improve vascular endothelial function – and were also followed for 1 year.The results showed that D1 had more unsteadiness in their gait; they walked more slowly and with more circumduction (lateral movement during the swing phase) than did C. D1 also showed greater muscle use and co-contraction of agonist and antagonist pairs of muscle during gait when compared to controls. While the controls showed no difference in gait over the year, D1 showed deterioration in gait and D2 showed improved gait over the 1 year.

Thus, diabetes seems to continually deteriorate gait unless a drug like RSG is given. When RSG was administered for 1 year, the velocity of gait, circumduction and muscle use was increased to near that of the age-matched controls.

Fifty subjects diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 30 subjects with no history of diabetes (controls) were examined to assess their gait characteristics during the initiation of gait, gait in a linear path and during turns. Gait characteristics were measured by pressure sensors in the shoes, accelerometers on the knees and the electromyogram from the medial gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles.