Intravenous magnesium sulfate in acute severe asthma.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Magnesium Sulfate in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Analysis of variance with repeated measurement on time was used to determine the severity score between two groups.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The researchers conducted a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial with subjects from the emergency room, Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.

Patients, aged 15-65 years with acute severe asthma attack, whose severity scores were greater than 4 and who were willing to be enrolled in a study during March to November 1997 participated in the study.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

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.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Magnesium Sulfate.

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

Severity scores were measured by two investigators using Fischl's indices.

The times interval of measurements were at the initial (0), 60, 120, 180, and 240 min from receipt of treatment.

Patients were hospitalized if the severity scores at 240 min exceeded 1.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Albuterol, Analysis of Variance, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Asthma, Bronchodilator Agents, Dexamethasone and Magnesium Sulfate.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 10 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2000 (Respirology (Carlton, Vic.)), a journal based in Australia.

More context: all human trials.