Contralesional Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Not Enhance Upper Limb Function in Subacute Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Table 1

Characteristics of the subjects.

Characteristic	Active tDCS; ()	Sham tDCS; ()	value
Gender (female/male)	8/7	4/11	0.136^1
Age, years ()			0.991^2
Education, years ()	9.3 ± 4.1	7.5 ± 4.9	0.305^3
Ethnicity, (%)			0.478^4
White	9 (60)	9 (60)
Black	6 (40)	5 (33.3)
Asian	0 (0)	1 (6.7)
Hypertension, (%)	10 (66.7)	12 (80)	0.682^5
Diabetes mellitus, (%)	7 (46.7)	6 (40)	0.713^1
Right-handedness, (%)	12 (85.7)	13 (92.9)	>0.999^5
Previous stroke, (%)	2 (13.3)	1 (7.1)	>0.999^5
Time since stroke, median (IQR)	37 (23.5; 45.5)	26.5 (20.8; 37.3)	0.155^3
Thrombolysis, (%)	3 (20)	2 (13.3)	>0.999^5
Lesion side (right/left/bilateral)	7; 8; 0	7; 7; 1	0.484^4
HADS—depression, median (IQR)	3 (1; 6.5)	1.5 (0; 5.3)	0.246^3
HADS—total score, median (IQR)	9 (4; 12)	4 (2; 11)	0.114^3
Lesion site
Corticosubcortical	9 (60)	5 (35.7)	0.191^1
Subcortical	6 (40)	9 (64.3)	0.191^1
Involved M1	6 (40)	4 (28.6)	0.700^5
Involved PLIC	8 (53.3)	13 (92.9)	0.035^5
Stroke etiology, TOAST			0.610^4
Large-artery atherosclerosis	2 (13.4)	2 (13.3)
Small-vessel occlusion	0 (0)	1 (6.7)
Other determined etiology	2 (13.4)	1 (6.7)
Undetermined etiology^a	1 (6.7)	1 (6.7)
Undetermined etiology^b	10 (66.7)	10 (66.7)

tDCS: transcranial direct current stimulation. HADS: Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. SD: standard deviation. IQR: interquartile range. M1: primary motor cortex. PLIC: posterior limb of the internal capsule. TOAST: according to criteria from the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment. ¹Chi-square test. ²Student’s -test. ³Mann-Whitney’s test. ⁴Likelihood ratio test. ⁵Fisher’s exact test. ^aComplete investigation.^.bIncomplete investigation.