Yang 2015.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | Pilot RCT Setting: Taiwan, patients receiving routine rehabilitation | |
| Participants | Inclusion criteria: patients between 18 and 80 years of age; (2) first‐stroke patients (cerebral infarction or haemorrhage) confirmed by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and in recovery time within 60 to 180 days; (3) USN confirmed by line bisection test, star cancellation test, or clinical examination; (4) patients without serious heart, lung, and kidney disease or epilepsy; (5) patients without metallic implant of diamagnetic substance Age, years: intervention 1 = 46.72 ± 13.11, intervention 2 = 48.01 ± 12.25, intervention 3 = 49.45 ± 10.78, control = 47.70 ± 11.81 Sex (number of men): intervention 1 = 6, intervention 2 = 4, intervention 3 = 5, control = 7 Time since stroke: within 60 to 180 days | |
| Interventions | rTMS Intervention 1: stimulation parameter in the 1‐Hz group was 1 Hz, and stimulus duration for each sequence was 8 seconds; repeated 82 sequences with a total of 656 pulse number Intervention 2: stimulation frequency in the 10‐Hz group was 10 Hz, with a total pulse number of 1000 and stimulation interval of 55 seconds Intervention 3: continuous TBS group parameter was 801 pulses, in bursts of 3 pulses at 30 Hz, repeated every 100 milliseconds (5 Hz, θ rhythm) Control: sham stimulation | |
| Outcomes |
2 weeks before treatment (designated as time point 1), beginning of treatment (time point 2), end of treatment (time point 3), 1 month after treatment (time point 4) |
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| Notes | ||
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | No detail given |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | No detail given |
| Blinding of participants | Unclear risk | No detail given |
| Blinding of personnel | High risk | No detail given |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Mentions assessor was blinded, although unclear if blinding achieved |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | No dropouts |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | Although tables for 2 out of 3 outcomes are presented (the significant 2), unsure if this constitutes high bias |
| Other bias | Low risk | No evidence of this |