| Study | Reason for exclusion |
|---|---|
| Alvarez 2011 | Trial registration record and trial report: completed study with ineligible question and ineligible population (dementia). |
| Barolin 1996 | Ineligible study design, not an RCT |
| Bavarsad Shahripour 2011 | Reported as an abstract only; ineligible patient population: the time window not specified (review protocol specifies that symptom onset should be less than 48 hours from the onset of stroke) |
| Bayer 1980 | Ineligible study design, not an RCT |
| Capisizu 2016 | Ineligible question: poststroke rehabilitation, not acute stroke management |
| Chang 2016 | Ineligible question: poststroke rehabilitation, not acute stroke management |
| Cuparnecu 2001 | Reported as an abstract only, no further full‐text publications; no follow‐up data |
| Dobi 2010 | Reported as an abstract only; efficacy assessment with Barthel Index only; no clinically relevant information, no information on death |
| Domzal 1995 | Ineligible study design, not an RCT |
| Ershov 2009 | Ineligible study design: no randomisation |
| Ershov 2011 | Ineligible study design: no randomisation |
| Gasecki 2016 | Ineligible question and reported as an abstract only: the relationship between aortic stiffness and objective and indirect tissue distraction parameters (neuroimaging) |
| Gheorghias 2019 | Ineligible question: stroke rehabilitation |
| Guekht 2015a | Reported as an abstract only; not an RCT, a meta‐analysis of CARS1 and CARS2 |
| Guekht 2015b | Reported as an abstract only; ineligible question and population: early rehabilitation after stroke |
| Guekht 2016 | Ineligible question (stroke rehabilitation), reported as an abstract only |
| Guekht 2017 | Ineligible question and not an RCT, a review paper: meta‐analysis of CARS trials |
| Haffner 2001 | Reported as an abstract only; efficacy assessment with stroke scales; no information on death |
| Hassanein 2016 | Ineligible question and study population: infants with perinatal brain insult |
| Hong 2005 | Reported as an abstract only |
| Imahori 2016 | Ineligible study design: a case study |
| IRCT201107226907N3 | Ongoing study with ineligible question and population (cerebral palsy), and findings not reported |
| IRCT2014040312888N2 | Ongoing study with ineligible question and population (head trauma and brain injury), and findings not reported |
| Jianu 2010 | Ineligible study design: randomisation not described; therapeutic time window was 72 hours (review protocol specifies 48 hours) |
| Jianu 2015 | Ineligible study design: no randomisation, therapeutic time window was 72 hours |
| Kim 2014 | Reported as an abstract only. Not a relevant condition ‐ subacute stroke; treatment initiated after 8 days of stroke onset |
| Kim 2015 | Reported as an abstract only. Cerebrolysin given 7 days after stroke onset. |
| Kim 2016 | Ineligible question in a review article |
| Kim 2019 | Ineligible study design: observational retrospective clinical study |
| Lebedeva 2018 | Ineligible question and population: people in the pre‐ and postoperative period of coronary artery bypass graft surgery |
| Lees 2019 | Ongoing study with ineligible question and study design: registry study. Trials registration record and reported as abstract only, as final results |
| Martinez 2017 | Ineligible question and study design: stroke rehabilitation in retrospective study |
| Martinez Sanchez 2015 | Ineligible study design: not an RCT: "Open label, one arm, and dose decreasing exploratory study" |
| Melnikova 2018 | Ineligible question (poststroke depression) and reported as an abstract only |
| Moskovko 2019 | Ineligible study design: retrospective study, reported as an abstract only |
| Muresanu 2015 | Ongoing study with ineligible question: delayed recovery/motor function after stroke. Trials registration record and reported as abstract only |
| Muresanu 2016a | Ineligible question and ineligible timing of cerebrolysin initiation after stroke onset |
| Muresanu 2016b | Ineligible question: potentiation of stem cell‐induced neuroprotection, and reported as an abstract only |
| Muresanu 2018 | Ineligible question and reported as 2 abstracts only |
| Nag 2017 | Ineligible question (acute ischaemic infarct CT neuroimaging) and reported as an abstract only |
| Nasiri 2017 | Ineligible question and study population: children with cerebral palsy |
| NCT00947531 | Trial registration record: completed study with ineligible question and ineligible population (vascular dementia) |
| NCT01059461 | Trial registration record: completed study with ineligible question, findings not reported |
| NCT01388738 | Ineligible question and patient population: neuroprotective drug efficiency in people after ischaemic stroke; people from 3 to 6 months after ischaemic stroke |
| NCT01606111 | Trial registration record: study with ineligible question and ineligible population (brain injury), with unknown status, findings not reported |
| NCT01787123 | Ongoing study with ineligible question and ineligible study population (aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage). Trial registration record |
| NCT01822951 | Trial registration record: study with ineligible question and population (mild to moderate dementia), withdrawn |
| NCT01996761 | Completed trial registration record with published results. Ineligible question and patient population: effects of cerebrolysin on motor recovery in people with subacute stroke; cerebrolysin started within 7 days after stroke onset |
| NCT02116348 | Trial registration record: study with ineligible question, of unknown status, findings not reported |
| NCT02581371 | Ineligible question and patient population: effect of cerebrolysin at the level of paresis; the time from the stroke onset to the introduction of the drug was 72 hours |
| NCT02768571 | Completed trial registration record without posted results. Ineligible question and patient population: effects of cerebrolysin on motor recovery in people with severe motor involvement at subacute phase of stroke; subacute stage (less than 1 week after stroke) |
| NCT03480698 | Ongoing study with ineligible study design: registry/observational study. Trial registration record |
| NCT03506841 | Ongoing study with ineligible question: trial registration record |
| Park 2018 | Ineligible question and study design: treatment of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage in adults in a retrospective chart review |
| Poljakovic 2019 | Ineligible question and reported as an abstract only |
| Pushkarev 2015 | Ineligible study design; not an RCT: "An analysis of 42 case histories of patients from the period 2000 to 2014 with the diagnosis of lacunar stroke who were hospitalised in a stroke center." |
| RDPh_12_03 | Trial registration record in Russian register: ineligible question and patient population (patients with chronic brain ischaemia and non‐dementia cognitive impairment) |
| Shamalov 2005 | Ineligible question: effects on infarct volume after acute ischaemic stroke |
| Shamalov 2010 | Ineligible question: change in stroke volume of lesion detected by MRI: "Effect of cerebrolysin at a dose of 50 mL on morphometric picture of brain damage in ischemic stroke" |
| Shishkova 2015 | Ineligible question; ineligible population: "60 patients with hand paresis and 60 with aphasia were randomly assigned to treatment with cerebrolysin (25 mL/daily) or placebo group (which received saline infusions)" |
| Shishkova 2016 | Ineligible question and population: people with poststroke aphasia and diabetes mellitus, and reported as an abstract only |
| Shul'ginova 2016 | Ineligible question: red blood cell membrane lipid spectrum in patients with chronic cerebral ischaemia on the background of hypertensive disease |
| Skvortsova 2006 | Ineligible study design: no randomisation |
| Skvortsova 2008 | Reported as an abstract only: multiple publications |
| Stan 2013 | Ineligible question: change in stroke volume |
| Stan 2017 | Ineligible question: neurorehabilitation |
| Stanescu 2017 | Ineligible question: recovery of upper limb function in subacute ischaemic stroke |
| Uivarosan 2018 | Ineligible question: poststroke patients at 6 and 12 months after stroke |
| Uivarosan 2019 | Ineligible question: rehabilitation of poststroke patients |
| Vilenskii 1999 | Ineligible study design, not an RCT |
| Vilenskii 2007 | Ineligible question: repeated cerebrolysin course in stroke survivors |
| Winkler 2018 | Ineligible question, ineligible study design: retrospective study of upper extremity motor recovery after stroke |
| Yavorskaya 2008 | Ineligible patient population, ineligible question: patients with cognitive disorders |
| Zamfirescu 2017 | Ineligible question and population: poststroke rehabilitation |
| Zhu 2003 | Ineligible question and population: cerebrolysin used in people with stroke episode duration of 28 ± 7 days; efficacy assessment with stroke scales only |
| Zimin 2019 | Ineligible question and reported as an abstract only: cerebrolysin used after thrombectomy |
CT: computed tomography MRI: magnetic resonance imaging NIHSS: National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale RCT: randomised controlled trial