Tocolysis with atosiban: experience in the management of premature labor before 24 weeks of pregnancy.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Receptors, Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Atosiban acts through selective, competitive inhibition of both oxytocin and vasopressin, so that there are reasons to assume that a tocolytic effect can also be achieved earlier in the pregnancy.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 women.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, women only.

In this prospective, randomized pilot study, 20 women in the 18th through 24th week of gestation who presented at their hospital with preterm labor were treated with atosiban.

In the control group 20 women received saline infusions.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and pilot study.

The women were allocated by chance, so the Receptors, Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

All patients received antibiotic therapy.

A cervical cerclage was performed when indicated as was correction of the vaginal pH.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Gestational Age, Obstetric Labor, Premature, Pilot Projects, Pregnancy Outcome, Pregnancy Trimester, Second, Receptors, Oxytocin and Tocolytic Agents.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Receptors, Oxytocin in 20 women.

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.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2005 (Archives of gynecology and obstetrics), a journal based in Germany.

More context: all human trials.