| Item | Detail | Provided | Yes | Unclear or incomplete | No or not applicable |
| (1) Acupuncture rationale | (1a) Style of acupuncture | 16 | | | (1b) Reasoning for treatment | 11 | | 5 [27–31] | (1c) Extent to which treatment was varied | 16 | | |
| (2) Details of needling | (2a) Number of needle insertions | 9 | 7 [30–36] | | (2b) Points used (uni/bilateral) | 16; u/b: 9 | u/b: 3 [29–31] | u/b: 4 [32–34, 36] | (2c) Depth of insertion | 9 | 1 [32] | 6 [28–31, 34, 37] | (2d) Response sought | 9 | | 7: [27, 29, 31, 32, 37–39] | (2e) Needle stimulation | 14 | | 2 [33, 34] | (2f) Needle retention time | 14 | 2 [30, 31] | | (2g-1) Needle (dimensions) | 13 | | 3 [29, 32, 39] | (2g-2) Type (material/mfc) | 12 | 3 [35, 36, 40] | 1 [39] |
| (3) Treatment regimen | (3a) Number of sessions | 13 | 3 [27, 30, 31] | | (3b-1) Frequency or time between treatments | 6 [27, 28, 34–36, 38] | 2 [30, 32] | 8 | (3b-2) Duration of treatment sessions | 14 | 2 [30, 31] | |
| (4) Other components of treatment | (4a) Details of other interventions for the acupuncture group | 2 [33, 34] | | 14 | (4b) Setting and context of treatment | 16: N = 15
[27–35, 37–42]; T = 4 [32–34, 38]; P = 2 [33, 34]; O = 3: eeg [33], lds [42], icg [36] | | |
| (5) Practitioner background | (5) Description of participating acupuncturists | 2 [35, 36] | 3 [32, 38, 39] | 11 |
| (6) Control or comparator interventions | (6a) Rationale for the control or comparator | 2 [35, 42] | 7 [27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 38, 40] | 7 [29, 31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41] | (6b) Precise description of the control or comparator | 8 | 2 [30, 33] | 6 [31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41] |
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(2b) u/b: uni/bilateral. (2d) Acupressure [39], laser acupuncture [37], electric moxibustion [29], and P-Stim, a form of auricular electroacupuncture [32]. (2g) mfc: manufacturer; no mfc [35, 36, 40], material not mentioned [40]. (4b) All studies [27–35, 37–42], except [36] are conventional NIRS; N: NIRS, T: TCD, P: Pointselect (a tool to help identify acupuncture points), O: other; eeg: electroencephalogram, lds: laser Doppler spectroscopy, and icg: indocyanine green perfusion imaging (an application of NIRS).
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