Wu 2003.

Methods	Groups: A: acupuncture, B: medicine control. Blinding: no information. Dropouts/withdrawals: 0. Duration of intervention: no information of baseline; 30 days' treatment; no follow‐up.
Participants	Number of participants screening/included/analyzed: not reported/80/80. Number of participants in each group: 40:40. Demographics: mean age 48.55 years in A, 47.85 years in B; number of women 17:19. Number of participants who used antihypertensives: no information. Course of disease: 6 months to 10 years, mean 5.15 years in A; 6 months to 10 years; mean 4.95 years in C. Setting: no information.
Interventions	Acupuncture points: acupuncture at Hegu (LI4), Taichong (LR3) and warming acupuncture‐moxibustion at Baihui (GV20). Information on acupuncturists: no information. Deqi achieved?: yes. Control group intervention: captopril (Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Shanghai), 25 mg TID, for 30 days.
Outcomes	Primary outcome: change in SBP and DBP before and after treatment (measured within 5 days after last session). Secondary outcome: change in plasma angiotensin ll before and after treatment.
Study detail	Position for measuring BP: no information. BP measurements: no information. Time of each session: needles retained for 20 min, stimulated every 5 min and lasting 30 seconds. Number of treatment sessions: 30 (for 30 days). Frequency of treatment sessions: once daily. Time of recruiting: January 2000 to December 2002. Adverse events: no information.
Publication detail	Language or publication: Chinese. Commercial funding: no Non‐commercial funding: yes (Hunan Technology Gallery). Publication status: peer review journal.
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Use of random digits.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Participants and investigators not blinded to acupuncture or pills.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No dropouts or withdrawals from analysis.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Relevant outcomes presented.
Other bias	Unclear risk	No description.