Corticotropin-releasing hormone: a biochemical predictor of preterm delivery in a pilot randomized trial of the treatment of preterm labor

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The researchers assessed the ability of maternal plasma corticotropin-releasing hormone measurements to predict preterm delivery in the setting of a pilot study comparing transdermal glyceryl trinitrate with standard beta-mimetic therapy for preterm labor and to determine the effect of these tocolytics on maternal plasma corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations.

Who Took Part

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

Twenty-six consecutive patients with preterm labor were randomized to tocolytic treatment with transdermal glyceryl trinitrate (n=13) or intravenous albuterol (n=13).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and pilot study.

Because people in this ACTH (Corticotropin) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger ACTH (Corticotropin) study would be practical.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Administration, Cutaneous, Albuterol, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Gestational Age, Nitroglycerin, Obstetric Labor, Premature and Tocolytic Agents.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

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 1998 (American journal of obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.