A Comparison between Intravenous Magnesium Sulfate and Oral Magnesium Chloride in Mild Preeclampsia

Background: preeclampsia is the second cause of maternal mortality in the united states and accounts for 25% of perinatalmortality. mild preeclampsia could be treated without hospitalization, however in some cases, hospitalization seems necessary.administration of magnesium sulfate (mgs0 4) in mild preeclampsia is a matter of controversy.it is obvious that replacing intravenous magnesium sulfate with an oral preparation of magnesium, of course if it gains asufficiently high serum level, can be easier to use and less expensive. up to the present time, we have not been able to find anypreviously done studies using oral magnesium preprations to treat preeclampsia. thus, we tried to compare serum magnesiumlevel with oral magnesium chloride and intravenous (iv) magnesium sulfate therapy.methods: this was a comparative experimental study. from january 2002 until april 2003, pregnant patients with mild preeclampsiaadmitted to ai-zahra and beheshti hospitals,lsfahan,iran, between their 27th and 38th weeks of gestation were dividedinto 2 groups randomly. there were 33 patients in each group. the first group was treated with iv magnesium sulfate (2g/h) and the second group received oral magnesium chloride (4 g/2h). magnesium level was checked in 0, 3, 6, 12 hours. thecollected data were analyzed with t-student test on a computer applying spss software.results: there was no statistical difference between the two groups regarding age, gravidity and gestational age. magnesiumlevel rose in both groups (p