Acupuncture lowering blood pressure for secondary prevention of stroke: a study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Table 1 Study schedule

Period	Screening	Baseline	Treatment (weeks 1–12)		Follow-up (weeks 13–48)
Week	Week 0	Week 0	Week 6	Week 12	Week 24	Week 48
Eligibility	×
Demographic medical history	×
Informed consent		×
Basic laboratory test®	×			×	×
24-h ABPM		×	×	×
TCM syndrome score, SF-36		×	×	×
NIHSS, BI		×	×	×
ESRS		×				×
Follow-up BP					×	×
Recurrence of stroke						×
NO, ET, Hcy, sCD40L, Copeptin		×		×	×
ECG		×		×	×
Chest X-ray		×
Color Doppler ultrasound®		×		×
All-cause mortality rate						×
Combined diseases and drugs	Record at any time
Antihypertensive medication adjustment	Record at any time
Adverse event	Record at any time
Daily BP	Record everyday (based on BP diary)
Safety of acupuncture	Record at any time
Patients’ compliance				×

Basic laboratory test®: blood, urine, and stool routine, coagulation function, D-dimer, liver and kidney function. Color Doppler ultrasound®: cardiac ultrasound, carotid artery ultrasound, transcranial Doppler of lower extremities ultrasound. ABPM ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, SF-36 Short Form 36-item Health Survey, NIHSS National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, BI Barthel Index, ESRS Essen Stroke Risk Score, BP blood pressure, NO nitric oxide, ET endothelin, sCD40L soluble CD40 ligand, ECG electrocardiograph, Hcy homocysteine, TCM traditional Chinese medicine

ISSN: 1745-6215