Supervised Exercise Training Improves 6 min Walking Distance and Modifies Gait Pattern during Pain-Free Walking Condition in Patients with Symptomatic Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease

This study aimed to investigate the effects of supervised exercise training (SET) on spatiotemporal gait and foot kinematics parameters in patients with symptomatic lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) during a 6 min walk test. Symptomatic patients with chronic PAD (Fontaine stage II) following a 3 month SET program were included. Prior to and following SET, a 6 min walk test was performed to assess the 6 min walking distance (6MWD) of each patient. During this test, spatiotemporal gait and foot kinematics parameters were assessed during pain-free and painful walking conditions. Twenty-nine patients with PAD (65.4 ± 9.9 years.) were included. The 6MWD was significantly increased following SET (+10%; p ≤ 0.001). The walking speed (+8%) and stride frequency (+5%) were significantly increased after SET (p ≤ 0.026). The stride length was only significantly increased during the pain-free walking condition (+4%, p = 0.001), whereas no significant differences were observed during the condition of painful walking. Similarly, following SET, the relative duration of the loading response increased (+12%), the relative duration of the foot-flat phase decreased (−3%), and the toe-off pitch angle significantly increased (+3%) during the pain-free walking condition alone (p ≤ 0.05). A significant positive correlation was found between changes in the stride length (r = 0.497, p = 0.007) and stride frequency (r = 0.786, p ≤ 0.001) during pain-free walking condition and changes in the 6MWD. A significant negative correlation was found between changes in the foot-flat phase during pain-free walking condition and changes in the 6MWD (r = −0.567, p = 0.002). SET was found to modify the gait pattern of patients with symptomatic PAD, and many of these changes were found to occur during pain-free walking. The improvement in individuals’ functional 6 min walk test was related to changes in their gait pattern.