STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1641781
Comparative Effects of 2Hz versus 100Hz Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on Upper Limb Motor Function Post-Stroke: Design and Rationale for a Randomized Trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fuyong People's Hospital of Bao'an District, Shenzhen, shenzhen, China
- 2Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Stroke-induced upper limb dysfunction significantly impacts rehabilitation outcomes. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) shows promise, but the optimal frequency for motor recovery remains unclear. This study investigates the comparative effects of low-frequency (2Hz) and high-frequency (100Hz) TENS in post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation. This article describes the design and conduct of this trial. Method/Design: An assessor-blinded, single-center randomized controlled trial with partial participant blinding (active vs placebo) will recruit 156 participants aged 40–80 years, 10 days to 2 months post-stroke, with mild-to-moderate upper-limb impairment (Brunnstrom III–V). Participants will be randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to 2 Hz TENS, 100 Hz TENS, placebo TENS, or a no-TENS usual-care control for 8 weeks (3 sessions/week, 30 minutes/session). The primary outcome is the Fugl–Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity (FMA-UE). Secondary outcomes include Manual Muscle Testing (MMT), the Modified Ashworth Scale, electroencephalography (EEG) metrics, the Lindmark Motor Score (hand subscale), and the Barthel Index, assessed at baseline, weeks 4 and 8, and at 1 and 3 months post-intervention. Discussion: This trial is, to our knowledge, among the first randomized head-to-head comparisons of low-versus high-frequency TENS for post-stroke upper-limb rehabilitation. Its findings are expected to clarify frequency-dependent effects, narrow the plausible range of effective parameters, and provide evidence to inform clinical guidelines and future rehabilitation strategies.
Keywords: Frequency of TENS, Upper limb motor function, post-stroke, protocol, randomized controlled trial
Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Xie, Lei, Feng, Li and Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanxian Zou, Fuyong People's Hospital of Bao'an District, Shenzhen, shenzhen, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.