It's In The Way You Walk

Or it could be anyhow.

Researchers have stumbled (pardon the pun) upon an interesting discovery. It appears that people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) walk a little differently than those without it.

Methods: Twelve individuals with CFS and 12 matched controls participated in the study. Each subject walked along a 7.2m walkway three times at each of three velocities: self-selected, relatively slow (0.45 ms-1) and a relatively fast (1.34 ms-1).

A motion analysis system was used to investigate the sagittal plane joint kinematics and temporal spatial parameters of gait.

Results: At self-selected velocity there were significant differences between the two groups for all the temporal and spatial parameters measured, including gait velocity (P=0.002).

Very interesting. But does it get us anywhere?

Conclusions: The self-selected gait velocity and/or pattern of individuals with CFS may be used to monitor the disease process or evaluate therapeutic intervention.

I guess that's something. It's an interesting find nonetheless.