. 2017 Aug 18;10:1933–1942. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S141607

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of patients in the trials included in the meta-analysis

First author, reference	Country	Treatment regimen	No of patients	Male/female patients	Age (mean ± SD, years)	Duration of heel pain (mean ± SD, months)
Cotchett MP²⁸	Australia	Real trigger point dry needling	41	17/24	54.4±12.4	13.4±14.1
Cotchett MP²⁸	Australia	Sham trigger point needling	43	27/16	57.8±12	13.7±17.3
Zhang SP²⁹	People’s Republic of China	Acupuncture (PC7)	28	8/20	47±2.2	44.9±8.8
Zhang SP²⁹	People’s Republic of China	Acupuncture (LI4)	25	6/19	50±2.0	22.9±8.8
Eftekharsadat B³⁰	Iran	Dry needling	10	3/7	50.3±9	NR
Eftekharsadat B³⁰	Iran	NR	10	4/6	50.9±8.9	NR
Li SM³¹	People’s Republic of China	Miniscalpel–needle	31	10/19	54.74±10.16	8.81±2.79
Li SM³¹	People’s Republic of China	Steroid injection	30	7/25	56.93±9.25	9.8±2.94
Kumnerddee M³²	Thailand	Acupuncture	15	3/12	52.4±10.5	15.5±19.4
Kumnerddee M³²	Thailand	Conventional treatment	15	0/15	53.8±8	11.7±5.3
Wang LF³³	People’s Republic of China	Warm needling plus	54	32/22	52.21±5.02	6.04±0.95
Wang LF³³	People’s Republic of China	Chinese herb fumigation	54	31/23	61.25±7.25	7.36±1.26
Qian SH³⁴	People’s Republic of China	Warm needling plus	31	14/17	36–72	1–36
Qian SH³⁴	People’s Republic of China	Chinese herb fumigation	30	13/17	38–69	2–26

Abbreviation: NR, not reported.