The effect of magnesium sulfate on fetal heart rate parameters: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Magnesium Sulfate in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The researchers sought to determine the effect of magnesium sulfate on fetal heart rate baseline value, variability, and acceleration-deceleration pattern.

Who Took Part

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

Normal, nonlaboring pregnant patients at >30 weeks' gestation were recruited.

Patients randomized to the sodium chloride solution group received a sodium chloride solution infusion at a similar rate (unlabeled intravenous bags).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Magnesium Sulfate study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Magnesium Sulfate, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Magnesium Sulfate group a baseline to be compared against.

Maternal blood was drawn at 0, 1, and 3 hours for determination of total and ionized magnesium and calcium, electrolyte, and glucose levels.

One hour of fetal heart rate monitoring was repeated at 1 and 3 hours of infusion.

Tracings were interpreted without identifiers (of time or group) by using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development fetal heart rate monitoring guidelines.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Calcium, Gestational Age, Heart Rate, Fetal, Magnesium Sulfate, Potassium, Pregnancy Trimester, Third and Sodium.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Magnesium Sulfate.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1999 (American journal of obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.