Does measurement of intrauterine pressure have predictive value during oxytocin-augmented labor?

What Was Tested

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

To provide insight in the lack of a positive effect, the researchers evaluated level of IUP in Montevideo units (MU) in correlation with dysfunctional labor and adverse neonatal outcome.

Who Took Part

The study group was 503 women.

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

Here, the researchers present two secondary analyses on the 503 women who had IUP measured in the trial.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized 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.

Firstly, the researchers assessed labor outcome in relation to the highest IUP measured at any time during labor.

Secondly, the researchers assessed labor outcome to the IUP registered at the last vaginal examination during the first stage of labor in two study groups (above and below 200 MU).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cesarean Section, Labor, Induced, Oxytocin, Predictive Value of Tests, Pressure and Uterine Monitoring.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Intrauterine pressure, mode of delivery and pressure catheter.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Oxytocin in 503 women.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians), a journal based in England.

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