Intravenous magnesium sulfate for bronchial hyperreactivity: a randomized, controlled, double-blind study.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Magnesium Sulfate.

The researchers performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the effect of intravenous magnesium sulfate on bronchial reactivity to metacholine in 30 subjects with bronchial hyperreactivity.

Why It Was Studied

Conflicting data exist concerning the effect of magnesium on bronchial hyperreactivity.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 30 subjects taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The subjects were allocated by chance, so the Magnesium Sulfate group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Magnesium Sulfate could be set against what happens without it.

Metacholine provocation was repeated 30 minutes after the initiation of the magnesium or placebo infusion.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Analgesics, Bronchial Hyperreactivity, Bronchial Provocation Tests, Magnesium Sulfate and Respiratory Function Tests.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Magnesium Sulfate in 30 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2001 (Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.