Effects Of Oral Nifedipine On The Control Of Hypertension...

Few studies over the past years have compared the effects of oral nifedipine to intravenous labetalol for the control of hypertension during pregnancy. Shekhar et al., conducted a randomized, double-blinded placebo-controlled trial, to compare the effectiveness of orally administered nifedipine and intravenously administered labetalol for acute blood pressure control of hypertensive emergency in pregnancy.4 The study was conducted between October 2012 to April 2013 in the labor ward of the department of Obestrics and Gynecology of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Government Medical College and Hospital, Tanda, Kangra, India. Women were eligible for inclusion if they were 18 to 45 years old, at 24 weeks of gestation or more, a heart rate between 60†¦show more content†¦Package A contained either intravenous labetalol vials (total 60mL as labetalol 5 mg/mL) and 5 placebo tablets or IV saline placebo (60mL as 0.9%) and five 10-mg nifedipine tablets. Package B, which contained the opposite regimen of A, was utilized as a crossover treatment if the target blood pressure was not achieved after 5 cycles of regimen A. Blood pressure was measured using mercury sphygmomanometer as per standard recommendation every 20 minutes for at least 100 minutes or more until a target blood pressure of 150 mmHg systolic and 100 mmHg diastolic or lower was achieved.4 The primary outcome measure of the study was time needed to achieve target systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Secondary outcomes included the total number antihypertensive dosages required to achieve the target systolic blood pressure of 150 mmHg or lower and a diastolic of 100 mmHg or lower, maternal heart rate profile during the first 100 minutes, maternal hypotension (Bp90/60 mmHg), side effects profile, and perinatal outcome. No safety endpoints were explicitly stated in the present study. Utilizing the results of a previous study as guidance, with an alpha of 0.05 and 90% power, researchers decided to randomize 60 women (30 in each group).4 A one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normal distribution of the continuous data. A student t-test was used to analyze normally distributed data and ordinal data were