Combined alpha- and beta-adrenoceptor antagonism with prazosin and oxprenolol in control of severe hypertension in pregnancy.

The combination of prazosin (3-21 mg/day) and oxprenolol (60-360 mg/day) was used to treat 25 pregnant women with severe essential hypertension and 19 women with the hypertension-oedema-proteinuria syndrome. In the group with essential hypertension control of blood pressure was sufficient to avoid addition of hydralazine infusions in all but one patient. No patient developed late proteinuria and exacerbation of hypertension once control was established using this regimen. The birthweights of 58 percent of infants were above the 50th percentile of birthweights for the same ages of gestation in normal pregnancies; two intrauterine deaths occurred. In the hypertension-oedema-proteinuria group, blood pressure control was more difficult to sustain, necessitating additional hydralazine infusions in 11 patients. Pregnancy had to be terminated urgently because of progression of the disorder in 13 patients. There were three intrauterine deaths in this series and one infant was lost eight hours after delivery at 27 weeks following five weeks of antihypertensive therapy.