European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of two anti-hypertensive drugs: oral Nifedipine and oral Labetalol in cases of extreme preeclampsia in terms of their side effect profile, BP regulation, time taken to lower BP, and number of doses required. The objective of the study was to calculate the time required to reduce the blood pressure to the target level of 90 / 100 mmHg diastolic and less than 160mmHg systolic.In the labetalol group the mean SBP before treatment was 158mm of Hg which was reduced to 140 mm of Hg. The decline rate in the labetalol group was 11.77%. This study proved that labetalol reduces the BP more effectively than nifedipine and also has minimal side effects with less frequent dosing schedule as compared to nifedipine thus indicating that labetalol is better than nifedipine in lowering the BP in cases of preeclampsia.