Patients in the two groups received a total of 15 treatment sessions (three sessions a week for five weeks), each lasting approximately one hour, in- cluding 5-min warm-up and cool-down periods. Both NCTE and TTE were administered at the out- patient clinics of the two study sites. For the time between the start and the 24-week follow-up, par- ticipants were asked to refrain from any other treat- ment for pain management and from structured ex- ercise programs