Ardic 2002.

Methods	Design: randomised controlled trial, parallel design Setting: outpatients, single centre Country: Turkey
Participants	Sample size/available for analysis: 40/40 Gender: 36 women / 4 men Age: 41.9 ± 7.8 years Duration of disease (weeks, mean and SD): Group 1: 3.47 ± 0.99/Group 2: 3.33 ± 1.23/Group 3: 3.50 ± 1.08. The study included chronic and non‐chronic disease. We asked the authors for the data only for chronic participants (at least 3 months). Inclusion criteria: participants with active MTrP in one side of the upper trapezius muscles. Exclusion criteria: "Fibromyalgia, myofascial trigger point injection or receiving physical therapy modalities within 1 year before the study, acute trauma, history of inflammatory joint or muscle disease, infection or malignancy, neurological deficit, inadequate cooperation, diagnosis of cervical radiculopathy or myelopathy."
Interventions	Group 1: TENS and trapezius stretching exercises (n = 15) Group 2: EMS and trapezius stretching exercises (n = 15) Group 3: trapezius stretching exercises (n = 10) Treatment duration: one session therapy per day for two weeks Follow‐up duration: 3 months Schemes of TENS: "TENS was applied by a portable machine (ITO CO. Ltd, Japan) that generates symmetric, bi‐phasic rectangular pulses with 100 µsec duration. The current frequency was set at 60 Hz and intensity was increased up to patient’s perception of paresthesia. The negative electrode was placed on the active MTrP of the upper trapezius muscle and the positive one was placed on acromial tendon insertional site. The total duration of application was 20 minutes." Schemes of EMS: "A functional electrical muscle stimulator (ITO CO. Ltd, Japan) was used. The negative electrode was placed on the active MTrP of the upper trapezius muscle and the positive one was placed on acromial tendon insertional site. Symmetric, bi‐phasic rectangular pulses were set with current frequency at 25 Hz, pulse width as 250 µsec, hold time as 3 sec, rest time as 6 sec and ramp up/down time as 0.6 sec. The intensity was increased up to the patient’s tolerance, producing a strong upper trapezius muscle contraction. The total duration of application was 20 minutes." Schemes of control group: "The patients were instructed to follow a home program that included self‐stretching of the trapezius muscle. All the patients in all groups were instructed to do ten repetition of the exercises 3 times each day during the two weeks."
Outcomes	Primary outcomes Pain (VAS) Secondary outcomes ROM (goniometer)
Notes	Funding sources: not reported Conflict of interest: not reported Full text language: English Reason to await classification: it is not clear if the population included chronic neck pain. Action: we contacted authors asking for separate data from chronic participants (by email ‐ fardic@pamukkale.edu.tr ‐ on 30 January 2019 and 22 October 2019). The authors did not reply.