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What are the serum levels of nifedipine in pregnant women undergoing tocolysis, and do they correlate with BMI or gestational age?
What are the serum levels of nifedipine in pregnant women undergoing tocolysis, and do they correlate with BMI or gestational age?
Nifedipine serum levels vary widely during tocolysis but do not require dose adjustment based on BMI or gestational age.
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Wide nifedipine level variability during tocolysis does not support BMI- or gestational age-based adjustments; leaves open optimal dosing and monitoring strategies.
The objective of our cross-sectional, observational study was to investigate nifedipine serum levels in pregnant women undergoing tocolysis. A total of 24 pregnant women, 22-34 weeks' gestation, who were administered nifedipine for treatment of pre-term labour, were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were taken 12 h after the oral application of 60 mg nifedipine in 'continuous release' form (Adalat CR 60). Nifedipine serum levels were measured with liquid chromatography. Nifedipine serum levels spread between 6 and 101 ng/ml (17-292 nmol/l). There was no correlation between nifedipine levels and body mass index (BMI), or between nifedipine levels and gestational age. During nifedipine tocolysis, 11 of 24 patients (45.8%) had mild side-effects, mostly headache. The side-effects were not dose-related. Despite the standardised dosage and standardised blood sampling nifedipine serum levels spread in a wide range. There is no need to adjust the dose of nifedipine to BMI or to gestational age.
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Marin et al. (2007) studied this question.
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