Abstract
One thousand and ninety-three obstetricians answered a questionnaire on the management of pregnant women with pre-existing hypertension and pre-eclampsia. They reported that they frequently used antihypertensive drugs (most often methyldopa and diuretics) in severe essential hypertension but tended to give sedatives in mild cases. Renal impairment was considered more important that raised blood pressure as an indication for terminating pregnancy; but even without a raised blood urea concentration over a quarter of respondents (especially the more senior obstetricians) would have considered it. The more junior obstetricians were more likely to admit the least severely affected patients to hospital. Pre-eclampsia was usually treated with bed rest and sedatives (most frequently diazepam); but the choice of drug varied with the seniority of the respondents, the more senior obstetricians tending to confine themselves to the more familial drugs. There was considerable unanimity in the replies, even though most of the treatments and practices have not been validated by controlled trials, and two-thirds of the obstetricians gave the same answers to most of the questions.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Leather H. M., Humphreys D. M., Baker P., Chadd M. A. A controlled trial of hypotensive agents in hypertension in pregnancy. Lancet. 1968 Aug 31;2(7566):488–490. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(68)90650-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Page E. W., Christianson R. The impact of mean arterial pressure in the middle trimester upon the outcome of pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1976 Jul 15;125(6):740–746. doi: 10.1016/0002-9378(76)90839-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Redman C. W. Fetal outcome in trial of antihypertensive treatment in pregnancy. Lancet. 1976 Oct 9;2(7989):753–756. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(76)90597-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tervilä L., Goecke C., Timonen S. Estimation of gestosis of pregnancy (EPH-gestosis). Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 1973;52(3):235–243. doi: 10.3109/00016347309158320. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]