The effects of intrapartum magnesium sulfate therapy on fetal serum interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha at delivery: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Magnesium Sulfate.

Elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines in the fetus have been linked to neurologic morbidities in preterm neonates.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether intrapartum magnesium sulfate therapy has an effect on the umbilical venous concentrations of interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha at delivery.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

Women with singleton gestations >32 weeks with no clinical indications for magnesium sulfate therapy (preeclampsia or tocolysis) and either clinical chorioamnionitis or prolonged rupture of membranes were recruited for the study.

Fetal blood specimens were obtained by aspiration of the umbilical vein after cord clamping but before placental separation.

How the Study Was Run

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

As a double-blind Magnesium Sulfate study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Magnesium Sulfate, giving a reference point.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Magnesium Sulfate study would be practical.

Umbilical cytokine levels were measured with a sensitive and specific immunoassay.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Delivery, Obstetric, Fetal Blood, Interleukin-1, Interleukin-6, Labor, Obstetric, Magnesium and Magnesium Sulfate.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2001 (American journal of obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.