Increase in Short-Interval Intracortical Facilitation of the Motor Cortex after Low-Frequency Repetitive Magnetic Stimulation of the Unaffected Hemisphere in the Subacute Phase after Stroke

Table 1

Characteristics of the patients.

Characteristics	Active ()	Sham ()	value
Age (mean ± standard deviation)	57.1 ± 11.8	51.1 ± 17.7	0.438^1
Gender (men/women)	5/4	4/5	1.0^2
Handedness (oldfield inventory) (%)	82.3 (42.9–100)	62.5 (0–100)	0.345^3
Days after stroke	27 ± 3.6	30.1 ± 10	0.582^1
Affected hemisphere (right/left)	5/4	3/6	0.637^2
Infarct location (corticosubcortical/subcortical)	4/5	6/3	0.637^2
NIH Stroke Scale (median, interval)	5.3 (4–8)	5.9 (1–11)	0.964^3
Modified Rankin Scale	3 (2–5)	3 (0–4)	0.639^3
Baseline rMT (%)	55.5 ± 3.8	58.6 ± 5.5	0.859^3
Baseline SICI (%)	82.2 ± 20.3	50.5 ± 11.3	0.145^3
Baseline ICF (%)	140.3 ± 15.5	202.3 ± 50.7	0.402^3
Baseline PEMTS	739.1 ± 355.0	804.1 ± 639.5	0.965^3

N = number; rMT = resting motor threshold; SICI = short-interval intracortical inhibition; ICF = short-interval intracortical facilitation; ¹Unpaired -test. ²Fisher’s exact test. ³Mann-Whitney test.