Effect of magnesium on red blood cell deformability in pregnancy.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Fenoterol and Verapamil, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Red blood cell (RBC) deformability is an important factor in determining movement of red blood cells through the microcirculation.

The second aim was to examine the effect of calcium-antagonists (magnesium, nifedipin) on the deformability of RBC of preeclamptic patients in vitro.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

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

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Fenoterol group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

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

RBC-deformability was measured by laser diffractoscopy in all three groups.

Blood samples were taken before, after 1 h and after 24 h of administration.

RBC deformability was measured before and 15 min, 1 h, 2 h, 6 h, and 10 h after start of the incubation.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cells, Cultured, Erythrocyte Deformability, Fenoterol, Gestational Age, Magnesium Sulfate, Maternal Age and Obstetric Labor, Premature.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Fenoterol and Verapamil.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 11 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2005 (Hypertension in pregnancy), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.