REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS It remains unclear whether antihypertensive drug therapy for mild-moderate hypertension during pregnancy is worthwhile
BACKGROUND Mild-moderate hypertension during pregnancy is common .
Antihypertensive drugs are often used in the belief that lowering blood pressure will prevent progression to more severe disease , and thereby improve outcome .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of antihypertensive drug treatments for women with mild to moderate hypertension during pregnancy .
Maternal and fetal haemodynamics in hypertensive pregnancies during maternal treatment with intravenous hydralazine or labetalol
Summary . Intravenous treatment with 10 mg of hydralazine or 100 mg of labetalol was r and omly allocated to 30 hypertensive pregnant women .  Umbilical artery flow velocity waveforms were recorded using a pulsed Doppler duplex scanner ( ATL Mk V ) and umbilical artery pulsatility index ( PI ) and fetal heart rate ( FHR ) were derived from these recordings . Maternal blood pressure decreased significantly after both drugs . Maternal pulse rate increased after hydralazine but did not change significantly after labetalol . FHR did not change significantly after hydralazine but decreased after labetalol . PI decreased after hydralazine and increased after labetalol‐most fetuses showed little change but a few in each group showed large changes in PI , as did two of five additional patients studied . We attributed the decrease in PI in some fetuses after hydralazine to vasodilation , and the increase in PI in some fetuses after labetalol to vasoconstriction in the fetoplacental circulation , suggesting that fetal beta‐blockade may occur after maternal treatment with labetalol
REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS It remains unclear whether antihypertensive drug therapy for mild-moderate hypertension during pregnancy is worthwhile
BACKGROUND Mild-moderate hypertension during pregnancy is common .
Antihypertensive drugs are often used in the belief that lowering blood pressure will prevent progression to more severe disease , and thereby improve outcome .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of antihypertensive drug treatments for women with mild to moderate hypertension during pregnancy .