Relationship between fatigue and gait abnormality in joint hypermobility syndrome/Ehlers-Danlos syndrome hypermobility type

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group ofinherited connective tissue disorders characterised by joint hypermobility, skinhyperextensibility and tissue fragility. It has recently been shown that muscle weaknessoccurs frequently in EDS, and that fatigue is a common and clinically important symptom.The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between fatigue severity and thegait pattern using 3D Gait Analysis (GA).Eleven individuals with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome/Ehlers-Danlos SyndromeHypermobility type (JHS/EDS-HT) were investigated using muscle strength measuredwith standardised questionnaire measuring fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale, FSS) andquantitative 3D GA. Our data showed that FSS value well correlated with the peak ofvertical component of ground reaction force (r = 0.66, p < 0.05). The negative correlationgives evidence that the higher the fatigue is the more reduced force is during gait. Ourresults showed that the ground reaction force has been applied as a functional evaluationscore for detecting pathology in gait of JHS/EDS-HT participants and the found correlationbetween vertical force and fatigue demonstrated that muscle fatigue may be associatedwith a loss of proprioceptive acuity in lower limb muscles