Blood pressure and heart rate adjustment following acute Frenkel's ambulatory exercise in chronic hemiparetics stroke survivors: a comparative study.

BACKGROUND Frenkel's ambulatory activity has been routinely employed by physiotherapists for rehabilitation of gait coordination, however, its immediate influence on blood pressure and heart rate has not been investigated. OBJECTIVE To investigate the acute effect of Frenkel's ambulatory activity on blood pressure and heart rate of chronic hemiparetic stroke survivors. METHOD Using a comparative study design, 60 chronic hemiparetic stroke survivors of varying onset of stroke, ≤6, >6-11 and ≥12 months were subjected to a 2-minute Frenkel's ambulatory activity on marked footsteps (from standard adult described footsteps). Participants were assessed for both blood pressure and heart rate before and after the Frenkel's ambulatory activity. RESULTS Blood pressure and heart rate significantly increased (p<0.05) following Frenkel's ambulatory activity in all the 3 categories of stroke onset above baseline. However, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) across the onsets in both blood pressure and heart rate responses. CONCLUSION The outcome of this study indicated that Frenkel's ambulatory activity has the propensity to increase blood pressure and heart rate of hemiparetic stroke survivors irrespective of the onset of stroke. We recommend a pre, within and post-activity monitoring of stroke survivors while subjecting them to Frenkel's ambulatory activity.