Parsons 1987.

Methods	Single‐centre RCT.
Participants	72 women. Inclusion criteria: in preterm labour (no other details) and between 25 to 34 weeks' gestation. Exclusion criteria: ruptured membranes, initial temperature 99.8F or higher, treated with antibiotics or tocolytic infusion time less than 12 hrs. Setting: Chicago, USA. September 1983 to July 1984.
Interventions	MAGNESIUM VS BETAMIMETICS 1) Magnesium sulphate (n not stated) Loading dose 4 g IV over 10 minutes. Maintenance 2 g/hr increasing 0.5 g/hr every 20 minutes to a maximum of 3 g/hr. 2) Terbutaline (n not stated) Loading dose 0.25 mg IV. Maintenance 10 micrograms/minute increased by 5 micrograms per minute every 10 minutes until contractions decreased to less than every 30 minutes or woman had excessive adverse effects. IV therapy was continued for 12 hrs after the cessation of contractions.
Outcomes	Maternal oral temperature.
Notes	Antenatal corticosteroid use: not stated. Surfactant use: not stated. Sample‐size calculation: not stated. Funding: not stated.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	"randomized", no further details.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details provided.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	There were no details as to whether women or investigators were blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	There were no details as to whether the outcome assessors were blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Data were available for analysis for 26 women in each group although it is not reported if this is due to exclusion criteria after randomisation or some other factor.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	The only outcome reported is maternal oral temperature. There are no neonatal outcomes and no reporting of adverse effects.
Other bias	Low risk	No apparent evidence of other bias.