MAST‐I 1995.

Study characteristics
Methods	Concealment: telephone central office Assessor blind (telephone follow‐up) Exclusions during trial: none Losses to follow‐up: none
Participants	Europe 309 participants 163 (53%) male 22% aged < 60 years, 46% aged 61–75 years 100% CT before entry Ischaemic stroke < 6 hours since stroke onset
Interventions	Factorial design of streptokinase and aspirin vs no treatment; only aspirin alone vs no aspirin included to prevent confounding influence of streptokinase Treatment: aspirin 300 mg oral (or IV/rectal) 24 hourly Control: no treatment Duration: 10 days
Outcomes	Death plus cause of death Functional outcome at 6 months (mRS < 3 = independent) Intracranial haemorrhage (symptomatic plus systematic) Extracranial haemorrhage Pulmonary embolism (symptomatic) Recurrent stroke MI
Funding source	Partly supported by Pierrel SpA, Italy and Pharmacia Therapeutics, Sweden. Pharmacia provided streptokinase and Rhône‐Poulenc Rorer and Sanofi‐Winthrop supplied aspirin. The Stroke Association supported the UK centres (unclear what this involved).
Notes	Exclusions: coma, bleeding risk Follow‐up: 6 months
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomisation lists were generated by computer and stratified by centre.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	2 × 2 factorial study design used for randomisation.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) all outcomes	Unclear risk	Unclear if participants were blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) all outcomes	Low risk	No concerns regarding blinding of outcome assessment.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) all outcomes	Low risk	No missing outcome data.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Study protocol available.
Other bias	Low risk	No sources of other bias identified.