Ref (type)	Population	Outcome, Interventions	Results and statistical analysis	Effect size	Favours
Ankle brachial pressure index
Systematic review	104 people with intermittent claudication or critical limb ischaemia and superficial femoral artery stenosis or occlusion Data from 1 RCT	Mean improvement in ankle brachial index 6 months 0.25 with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) plus stent 0.18 with PTA alone	Mean difference 0.07 95% CI 0.04 to 0.10 Results should be interpreted with caution as it was unclear in some of the RCTs how many people in the PTA alone arm went on to have "bailout" (secondary) stenting and whether or not they were subsequently included in the PTA plus stent arm for analysis, or excluded from the trial	Effect size not calculated	PTA plus stent
Systematic review	291 people with intermittent claudication or critical limb ischaemia and superficial femoral artery stenosis or occlusion 3 RCTs in this analysis	Mean improvement in ankle brachial index 12 months with PTA plus stent with PTA alone Absolute results not reported	Mean difference 0.07 95% CI 0.05 to 0.09 Results should be interpreted with caution because of statistical heterogeneity as one large RCT in the analysis reported much higher results for ankle brachial index in the PTA plus stent group than the other RCTs Results should be interpreted with caution as it was unclear in some of the RCTs how many people in the PTA alone arm went on to have "bailout" (secondary) stenting and whether or not they were subsequently included in the PTA plus stent arm for analysis, or excluded from the trial	Effect size not calculated	PTA plus stent
Systematic review	98 people with intermittent claudication or critical limb ischaemia and superficial femoral artery stenosis or occlusion Data from 1 RCT	Mean improvement in ankle brachial index 24 months 0.26 with PTA plus stent 0.23 with PTA alone Review commented that the type of antiplatelet medication varied between the included RCTs; clopidogrel was given in one large RCT	Mean difference +0.03 95% CI –0.04 to +0.10 Results should be interpreted with caution as it was unclear in some of the RCTs how many people in the PTA alone arm went on to have "bailout" (secondary) stenting and whether or not they were subsequently included in the PTA plus stent arm for analysis, or excluded from the trial		Not significant