Until now the clinical criteria for the diagnosis of vascular parkinsonism (VP) have been disputed. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether quantitative gait analysis can differentiate between the gait pattern of patients with VP and the gait pattern of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). Twelve patients with VP, 12 patients with PD, and 10 neurologically nondiseased controls were examined by quantitative gait analysis. Patients with VP, having a similar gait velocity and stride length, showed relatively preserved arm swing with markedly more anteflexion in the shoulder on the forward sway of the arm swing than patients with PD. Patients with VP also showed less flexion dystonic posture of the elbow, hip, knee, and trunk than did patients with PD. There was no significant difference in the excursions and coordination of arm swing in the patients with VP compared with the control group. Both patient groups showed reduced leg movements, reduced hip extension, and reduced knee flexion and extension as compared with the controls.