Another Use for GPS – PAD!

The Global Positioning Device, or GPS, is a wonderful invention for helping to stop people from getting lost, whether they’re on foot, in the mountains, or just driving. Now French physicians have reported a new use in the journal Circulation. Patients with peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, have clogged leg arteries that cause calf pain when walking; this is called intermittent claudication. In order to determine the severity of the condition, and to measure progress under treatment, physicians use what’s termed the maximal walking distance, or MWD .

The MWD usually measured on a treadmill. However, the French doctors felt that a more natural way would be to let the patients walk unconstrained in a public park with their distance measured by GPS . There were 24 patients in the study – 6 women and 18 men, with an average age of 57. The MWD measured with GPS was compared with the self-reported MWD by the patient, that obtained by a treadmill test, and the distance obtained from a Walking Impairment Questionnaire. The GPS method offered the nearest result to that obtained from the treadmill test.

There are disadvantages to the GPS method. During a treadmill test other measurements are made – blood pressure, oxygen consumption, and heart rate. However, not every doctor has a treadmill, whereas a GPS is quite cheap. And a walk in the park is certainly more natural than on a treadmill . . .