Repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation improves severe upper limb paresis in early acute phase stroke survivors.

The study included only 19 adults, so the results are unstable and could change with a few participants. The paper describes automatic allocation with matching, not random assignment, so differences other than treatment may explain the result. The rPMS group started treatment later than the standard care group (median 9.2 versus 5.8 days from stroke onset, p = 0.039). The rPMS group also received fewer treatment sessions (median 7.8 versus 16.5, p = 0.034), so the positive finding depends on progress rate adjusted for duration rather than final scores. Final FMA scores were not significantly different between groups. Standard care was not described in detail, so readers cannot know what the control treatment involved. Treatment duration varied from 3 to 32 sessions because transfer timing differed. The study was done at one academic medical center and only included people with severe upper limb paresis in early acute stroke. There was large variation between participants in how much they improved.

No conflicts of interest were reported.

Do not conclude that rPMS is proven to improve final upper limb function. The final FMA scores did not differ significantly between groups, and the positive result came from score gain adjusted for treatment duration in a small study with no randomisation described.