<qa>  What was the result of SDT in patients with sub-acute stroke?Objectives: To compare the effects of speed-dependent treadmill training SDT on gait and balance performance in patients with sub-acute stroke. Design: Double-blinded randomized controlled trial. Subjects: Twenty-six patients with sub-acute stroke were randomly assigned to SDT n13 and control n13 groups. Methods: Subjects in the SDT group underwent short interval of walking trials with stepwise increases in the treadmill speed, following the principles of sprint training. Control subjects received gait training on the treadmill with a steady speed SST. Gait speed, stride length, cadence, and Bergs balance score BBS were recorded and analysed before and after the 10 training sessions. Results: Results of two-way repeated measures ANOVA showed significant group x time interactions for gait speed and stride length p 0.05. Within each subject group, there were improvements in all gait parameters and BBS all p 0.001 after the training program. In addition, the SDT group showed significantly larger percentage increases in gait speed by 72.8 and stride length by 29.2 than the control subjects p 0.02. Conclusions: SDT in patients with sub-acute stroke resulted in larger gains in gait speed and stride length compared with SST. The positive findings provide evidence for clinical practice of SDT in enhancing gait function after stroke. 