Different effects of tocolytic medication on blood pressure and blood pressure amplification

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

The importance of tocolysis has been discussed extensively.

Beta-2 adrenoceptor agonistic drugs like ritodrine have been the reference tocolytic drugs in most countries.

Who Took Part

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

A double-blind, randomized, crossover trial was carried out in 20 healthy non-pregnant female volunteers.

Hemodynamic measurements were performed under standardized conditions.

How the Study Was Run

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

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Oxytocin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular System, Oxytocin, Ritodrine, Tocolytic Agents and Vasotocin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2011 (European journal of clinical pharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.