SAN FRANCISCO — Results of nonstress tests in 112 pregnant women being treated for chronic hypertension from January 2003 to September 2007 did not differ significantly in patients on labetalol, compared with those on methyldopa, results of a retrospective study found.
“Attending physicians should feel comfortable using labetalol or methyldopa for pregnant patients with hypertension. Those medications have no effect on the baby,” Dr. Ramata Niang said in an interview at her prize-winning poster presentation at the meeting.
Nonstress tests were reactive in 84% of 76 patients on labetalol and in 81% of 36 patients on methyldopa, a difference that was not statistically significant, reported Dr. Niang, an ob.gyn. at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The investigators used the average of each patient's nonstress test results to categorize results as reactive or nonreactive.
The study started with charts on 188 women treated for hypertension during pregnancy and excluded women with multiple-gestation pregnancies, other antihypertensive treatment, or incomplete prenatal testing charts, to focus on the remaining 112 patients.
Among secondary outcomes, there were no significant differences between the two treatment groups in maternal age (29 years for women on labetalol and 31 years for those on methyldopa), gestational age at delivery (37 and 38 weeks), birth weight (2,823 g and 3,048 g), or the rate of preeclampsia (less than 1% in both groups).