A double blind, randomized trial on augmentation of labour with a combination of intravenous propranolol and oxytocin versus oxytocin only

What Was Tested

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

To compare the combination of intravenous propranolol and oxytocin with oxytocin only in augmentation of labour.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, women only.

A prospective randomized double-blind study in an obstetric department of a large university hospital in Finland.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Oxytocin 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 Oxytocin.

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

The main outcome measure was the effect of intravenous propranolol on the frequency of Caesarean section among parturients with arrested labour.

Categorial variables between the groups were compared using Chi square and Fisher's exact tests.

Continuous variables were compared using the Mann-Whitney U-test and Student's t-test.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Cesarean Section, Labor Stage, First, Labor, Induced, Oxytocin and Propranolol.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 12 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2006 (European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology), a journal based in Ireland.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.