Scalp Acupuncture for Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 3

Forest plot of comparison: scalp acupuncture versus western conventional medicines: neurologic deficit scores.

Study or subgroup	Experimental			Control			Weight	Mean difference IV,; Random, 95% CI	Mean difference IV,; Random, 95% CI
	Mean	SD	Total	Mean	SD	Total
Wei et al. 2005 [24]	18.53	6.8	36	23.9	6.77	36	12.8%	−5.37 [−8.50,−2.24]
Xu et al. 2007 [25]	13.24	1.87	61	17.21	1.23	61	29.6%	−3.97 [−4.53,−3.41]
Yu et al. 2004 [23]	9.43	3.76	30	11.7	3.63	30	20.5%	−2.27 [−4.14,−0.40]
Yu et al. 2010 [27]	13.2	6.486	20	18.4	9.034	20	7.0%	−5.20 [−10.07,−0.33]
Zhang et al. 2011b [28]	14	7.1	23	18.4	8.7	23	7.6%	−4.40 [−8.99,0.19]
Zhang et al. 2011a [28]	9.5	5.6	23	18.4	8.7	23	8.6%	−8.90 [−13.13,−4.67]
Zhu and Huang 2011 [29]	7.55	5.59	30	8.3	4.8	20	13.9%	−0.75 [−3.65,2.15]
Total (95% CI)			223			213	100.0%	−𝟑.𝟖𝟗 [ −𝟓.𝟑𝟔,−𝟐.𝟒𝟑]
Heterogeneity: Tau² = 1.80; Chi² = 14.02, df=6 (𝑃=0.03); 𝐼^2=57%
Test for overall effect: 𝑧=5.22 (𝑃<0.00001)