RESEARCH ARTICLE International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences A COMPARATIVE RANDOMISED CONTROLLED PARALLEL GROUP STUDY OF MATERNAL, FETAL AND NEONATAL OUTCOMES OF LABETALOL VERSUS METHYLDOPA IN THE TREATMENT OF NEW ONSET HYPERTENSION DURING PREGNANCY

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy remain one of the major causes of maternal and perinatal mortality in developing as well as developed countries and can result in hospital admission, pre-eclampsia and possible premature delivery besides other complications to the fetus and neonate. Antihypertensive drugs are often used to lower blood pressure to prevent this progression to adverse outcomes for the mother and the fetus. Hence, we wanted to compare the maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes of antihypertensive drugs-labetalol versus methyldopa in pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) in an Indian population. We carried out a prospective randomised controlled parallel group study on 90 outpatients as well as inpatients of the antenatal ward of Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of our tertiary care teaching hospital. Pregnant patients (20-40 weeks gestational age) newly diagnosed with blood pressure of ≥140/90mmHg and singleton pregnancies with vertex presentation were included in the study. 45 patients each were randomised to either of the two treatment arms – oral methyldopa or oral/IV labetalol. Difference in maternal and fetal/neonatal outcome measurements pre- and post-treatment (on 8 th day) were analysed by applying paired‘t ’ test. Fo