Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Physical Therapy for Neuromuscular and Neurosurgery

Background: multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune neurological disorder. imbalance and ataxic features are challenging symptoms in ms. objective: to assess the effect of dual task on balance in ms patients with ataxic symptoms. methods: thirty relapsing remitting ms patients with ataxic symptoms, their balance were assessed under two conditions: single task condition (A)assessing balance and dual task condition (b)assessing balance while doing a motor task. two types of motor dual tasks were chosen,"holding a tray task " and " coin transfer task". for balance assessment, biodex balance system (BBS) and timed up and go (TUG) were used. results: condition (B) significantly change balance indices measured by bbs. such changes were more pronounced under "coin transfer task" in comparison to "holding tray task". moreover, there was increase in time of TUG -motor in comparison to TUG test. when correlating the results, there was no significant correlation between bbs data and tug results. conclusions: motor dual tasks can affect balance of MS patients with ataxic symptoms; such effects depend on secondary task difficulty. there are subclinical impairments that can be unmasked by reinforced balance assessment using motor dual tasks. both static and dynamic balance assessments are considered complementary, it{u2019}s important to assess both to get a realistic evaluation

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