RESUMO
Objective To investigate the immediate effects of lower limb with open chain weight-adding on joint position sense and gait symmetry in stroke patients. Methods From January, 2016 to January, 2017, 39 stroke patients were included. Their joint position sense and gait symmetry were compared before and after weight-adding. The joint position senses of active reproduction of active positioning (ARAP) and passive reproduction of passive positioning (PRPP) were assessed during lower limb straight leg raise. The gait symmetry was also as-sessed and three indexes were recorded including the symmetry of foot rotation angle, step length and percentage of single leg support phase. Results After weight-adding, the position sense of PRPP did not improve (t=0.832, P=0.832), nor of the symmetry of foot rotation an-gle (t=-0.704, P=0.483) and percentage of single leg support phase (t=0.381, P=0.702);the position sense of ARAP improved (t=3.158, P=0.011), as well as the symmetry of step length (t=2.022, P=0.041). Conclusion The lower limb with open chain weight-adding could im-prove the active joint position sense and symmetry of step length.