Antenatal magnesium sulphate for the prevention of cerebral palsy in infants born preterm: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, multi-centre trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To study the effect of antenatal magnesium sulphate (MgSO4 ) on cerebral palsy (CP) in a manner that also provides adequate power for a linked trial sequential analysis.

Why It Was Studied

Those women gave birth to 680 children.

Who Took Part

The study group was 560 women.

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

In total, 560 pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery before 32 weeks of gestation were randomised from December 2011 to January 2018.

The children were followed up at a corrected age of 18 months or older with a review of their medical charts and with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire.

How the Study Was Run

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

The women were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the women nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some women received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, multi-centre trial.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Cerebral Palsy, Denmark, Magnesium Sulfate, Neuroprotective Agents, Premature Birth and Prenatal Care.

Author keywords: MgSO4, magnesium sulphate, mortality, neonatal morbidity, neuroprotection and preterm birth.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 560 women.

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

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2020 (BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.