Andreozzi 2008.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomized placebo‐controlled trial
Participants	44 male participants (22 intervention, 22 control) with intermittent claudication, admitted to the day hospital of the clinic of the authors. Half of the participants suffered from severe claudication (MWD < 100 m) and half had moderate claudication (MWD < 200 m), resulting in 4 equal subgroups of 11 participants each, based on intervention/control and severity of claudication
Interventions	Intervention: physical training 3 times weekly for 6 weeks + intravenous saline solution + intravenous 600 mg propionyl‐L‐carnitine 3 times weekly during the last 3 weeks of training Control: physical training 3 times weekly for 6 weeks + intravenous saline solution 3 times weekly during the last 3 weeks of training
Outcomes	Absolute claudication distance (= maximal walking distance) on treadmill (speed 2.5 km/h, slope 15%). Measurements were performed at baseline and after 3 and 6 weeks
Notes	Disease specific: rather short study duration Study authors did not receive any funding
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information about sequence generation of parallel groups
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No description of the method of concealment
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information about blinding available; double‐blind character assumed
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information to permit judgement of "low risk" or "high risk"
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	All results for groups and subgroups are reported; all P values are calculated. No withdrawals from the study reported. Results for the whole population (severe + moderate) were requested and were received from the study author
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Extensive reporting on ACD; probably no reporting bias
Other bias	Unclear risk	Disease specific: rather short study duration