pregnancy and to compare maternal and perinatal outcome.

Method: In a prospective randomized study, women attending labor room and antenatal out patient department of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical

College and Hospital during January 2014 to October 2015 were enrolled. The inclusion criteria were women with ≥24 weeks gestational age,

blood pressure ≥160/110 mmHg with or without proteinuria and no concurrent anti–hypertensive therapy. Patients were randomized in two groups

using simple randomized sampling, either receiving intravenous labetalol (Group A) or intravenous hydralazine (Group B) according to predecided

protocol. The primary outcome was defined as lowering of blood pressure ≤ 160/110 mmHg taking into consideration the number of doses

and time duration required to lower the blood pressure.

Result: Analysis elucidated a significant fall in systolic and diastolic blood pressure by both drugs (p value<0.05). The fall in both systolic and

diastolic blood pressure was insignificant when compared between the two groups after 20 minutes. When measured at 40, 60 and 80 minutes the

fall in systolic blood pressure was more significant in hydralazine group as compared to labetalol group. The fall in diastolic blood pressure remains

almost equivalent at all intervals between both the groups

Conclusion: For women with severe blood pressure, both labetalol and hydralazine are equally effective in pregnancy.