Table 1.

Effect of 48h treatment BMZ on maternal steroid levels. Blood collection was undertaken by mothers prior to treatment with BMZ, and repeated 48hs later regardless of delivery. Mean gestational age (GA) is given along with values for cortisol and aldosterone. The gestational ages in wks at 48 hrs after betamethasone were 23(1), 24 (4), 26(1), 27(1), 28(1), 29(1), 30 (3), 31 (3), 32(2) and 33 (1). 18 subjects were involved in this study and values given are Mean +− SE or median +− SD. Significance (P<) is as shown for each data set.

Group	n=		GA weeks	Days Post BMZ	Maternal Cortisol (ug/dl)	Maternal Aldosterone (pg/ml)
Pretreatment	18	Mean	28.4	0	21.90	240.1
		Median	29.5		17.35	176.11
		SD	3.28		12.87	202.4
		SE	0.77		3.03	47.7
48h Post Treatment	18	Mean		2	2.99	132.3
		Median			3.2	108.93
		SD			1.17	122.7
		SE			0.28	28.9
P<					<0.0001	<0.0198