Changes in blood pressure and cardiac output during cesarean delivery: the effects of oxytocin and carbetocin compared with placebo

Plain-language guide to PMID 23598289 (2013): double-blind randomized controlled trial study of Oxytocin and Carbetocin, low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

Key Facts

PMID: 23598289
Journal: Anesthesiology
Year: 2013
Study type: Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Rosseland LA et al. (5 authors)
DOI: 10.1097/ALN.0b013e31829416dd
Registered trial: NCT00977769

What This Study Did, in Plain Language

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin and Carbetocin in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Little is known about maternal hemodynamics after Cesarean delivery.

Oxytocin is the first-line treatment for uterine atony, although the effects of the long-acting oxytocin analogue carbetocin are comparable with that of oxytocin.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

The Oxytocin group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

This was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel-group comparison of carbetocin and oxytocin after elective Cesarean delivery of singletons under spinal anesthesia (n = 76).

Continuously measured invasive systolic arterial pressure was the primary outcome measure.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Pressure, Cardiac Output, Cesarean Section, Heart Rate, Oxytocics and Oxytocin.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2013 (Anesthesiology), a journal based in United States.

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

Our Notes on the Compounds

Oxytocin: A peptide hormone with established obstetric medical uses and a less settled role in research on behavior, sexual function and appetite.

Carbetocin: A long-acting oxytocin analog used outside the US to prevent bleeding after childbirth; also studied intranasally in Prader-Willi syndrome.

Source: PubMed record. This explanation is written by PeptideWhiz from the public record. For research and education only. Not medical advice; no dosing information is given.