Clinical Rehabilitation 2008; 22: 234–241 Treadmill training for ataxic patients: a single-subject experimental design Daniela Virgı´nia Vaz, Renata de Carvalho Schettino, Teresa Regina Rolla de Castro, Vale ´ ria Reis Teixeira, Sheyla Rossana Cavalcanti Furtado and Elyonara de Mello Figueiredo Physiotherapy Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Received 21st October 2006; returned for revisions 23rd March 2007; revised manuscript accepted 12th May 2007. Objective: To investigate changes in gait quality, balance and mobility associated with treadmill training for ataxic individuals. Design: Single-subject ABA design. Baseline phases (A) lasted three weeks and intervention (B) lasted four weeks. Setting: University rehabilitation clinic. Subjects: A woman (25 years) and a man (53 years) with chronic ataxia due to head trauma. Intervention: Three 20-minute treadmill training sessions each week with progression in velocity and step length. Main measures: Rivermead Visual Gait Assessment, Timed Up and Go, time to complete a balance task, walking speed, cadence, and stride length assessments three times a week during the 10 weeks. Data were analysed with the celeration line technique and two standard deviation band. Results: Both individuals demonstrated gains in all parameters over initial baseline and subsequent phases, with performance increases ranging from 26% to 233% when first and last assessments were compared. Significantly superior effects of treadmill training over baseline conditions on cadence were detected (P50.05). Gains in walking speed were not significantly better during intervention, but intervention withdrawal produced deceleration of performance gains. Gains in Timed Up and Go, step length and balance were not consistent and were possibly caused by a learning effect of the association between repeated testing and treadmill training. Rivermead Visual Gait Assessment gains reached significance only for subject 2 (P50.05), probably because of increased variability of performance of subject 1. Results suggest that the association between repeated testing and treadmill training might have been responsible for the observed gains in the two ataxic patients. Introduction The term ‘ataxia’ refers to movement coordina- tion disorders. Ataxia is frequently caused by cerebellar injuries due to cerebrovascular accidents, head trauma or tumours. 1,2 Indicative signs of Address for correspondence: Daniela Vaz, Departamento de Fisioterapia, Escola de Educac¸a˜ o Fı´sica, Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antoˆnio Carlos 6627, CEP: 31270-010, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. e-mail: danielavvaz@gmail.com ß SAGE Publications 2008 Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore 10.1177/0269215507081578