Normal Tandem Gait Test

As with the original romberg test the assessment is performed first with eyes open and then with eyes closed.

Normal tandem gait test. A good way to test balance as well as strength of the distal lower extremities is to have the patient heel and toe walk. For this second test the patient has to place his feet in heel to toe position with one foot directly in front of the other. A tandem gait test is one where the individual has to walk heel to toe. The patient should be able to balance without falling or stepping to the side.

Neurologists sometimes ask patients to walk in a straight line using tandem gait as a test to help diagnose ataxia especially truncal ataxia because sufferers of these disorders will have an unsteady gait. Test tandem gait by asking the patient to walk a straight line while touching the heel of one foot to the toe of the other with each step. The 10 metre walk test is a performance measure used to assess walking speed in metres per second over a short distance. The implementation is mostly the same.

Abnormalities in heel to toe walking tandem gait may be due to ethanol intoxication weakness poor position sense vertigo and leg tremors. It can be employed to determine functional mobility gait and vestibular function. Tandem gait have the patient walk heel to toe. This is repeated alternatively between both feet.

Patients with truncal ataxia caused by damage to the cerebellar vermis or associated pathways will have particular difficulty with this task since they tend to have a wide based unsteady gait and become more unsteady when attempting to keep their feet close together. This means that the front foot has to be placed such that its heel touches to the toe of the standing foot. The sharpened or tandem romberg test is a variation of the original test. Tandem gait is a gait method of walking or running where the toes of the back foot touch the heel of the front foot at each step.

Walking on heels is the most sensitive way to test for foot dorsiflexion weakness while walking on toes is the best way to test early foot plantar flexion weakness. A station test is performed with the patient s feet spaced wider apart than normal and then gauging whether a patient remains stable with and without the eyes closed.