Neuroscience & Medicine, 2019, 10, 323-330 https://www.scirp.org/journal/nm ISSN Online: 2158-2947 ISSN Print: 2158-2912 DOI: 10.4236/nm.2019.104023 Oct. 12, 2019 323 Neuroscience & Medicine Effect of Exercise on Gait Mechanics in a Patient with Severe Gait Disorder Due to Chronic Ischaemic Stroke: A Case Study Stella Fotiadou 1 , Ioannis Kouroumichakis 2 , Thomas Besios 3 , Nikolaos Papanas 4 , Erasmia Giannakou 1 , Vassilis Gourgoulis 1 , Nikolaos Aggeloussis 1 1 Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece 2 Internal Medicine, Alexandroupolis, Greece 3 Department of Physical Therapy, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece 4 Second Department of Internal Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece Abstract We describe the effects of an exercise programme based on the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association guidelines for stroke pa- tients on gait mechanics in a patient with severe gait disorder due to chronic ischaemic stroke. A 74-year-old female patient, with right hemiparesis as a result of a stroke attack before 18 months followed an 8-week exercise pro- gramme, consisting of three hourly sessions per week. Patient’s gait mechan- ics were evaluated before and after the intervention using a three-dimensional gait analysis system, with six infrared cameras, two force plates, and an elec- tronic timing system. Exercise led to increase of spatial and decrease of tem- poral gait parameters, increase of joint range of motion and lower limb mus- cle powers during the entire gait cycle and increase of the moments in the support phase. In conclusion, exercise had a positive effect on this patient’s gait pattern and improved her functionality. Keywords Exercise, Gait Analysis, Rehabilitation, Stroke 1. Introduction Stroke is the most common cause of serious long-term disability [1]. Although the rate of neurological recovery is rapid in the first 4 weeks after the stroke [2], functionality improvement seems to extend beyond this period, possibly through the development of compensatory strategies against neurological deficits [3]. How to cite this paper: Fotiadou, S., Kouroumichakis, I., Besios, T., Papanas, N., Giannakou, E., Gourgoulis, V. and Aggelous- sis, N. (2019) Effect of Exercise on Gait Me- chanics in a Patient with Severe Gait Dis- order Due to Chronic Ischaemic Stroke: A Case Study. Neuroscience & Medicine, 10, 323-330. https://doi.org/10.4236/nm.2019.104023 Received: August 30, 2019 Accepted: October 9, 2019 Published: October 12, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access