Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BS

Department

Biomedical Sciences

Faculty Mentor

Candice Holliday, Ph.D.

Advisor(s)

Padmamalini Thulasiraman, Ph.D. and Phoibe Renema, Ph.D.

Abstract

Medication choice is tightly regulated in most situations, but in the field of obstetric medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends both labetalol and nifedipine as oral treatments for emergent hypertension, with no preference shown between the two. Studies have suggested that consideration of hemodynamic profile may be an effective way to determine medication, but have not considered the Rule of 55, a simple calculation to predict hemodynamic profile. The goals of this study were to determine whether tailoring the oral hypertensive medication to a patient’s hemodynamic profile is associated with better blood pressure control within 72 hours and to determine if the Rule of 55 is an accurate method to tailor treatment It is hypothesized that adherence to simple hemodynamic models such as the Rule of 55 will show faster control of blood pressure than an uninformed decision. Between-group comparisons of hypodynamic and hyperdynamic patients did not reveal any significant differences in maternal characteristics, obstetric characteristics, or hemodynamic findings, and no major conclusions were able to be drawn about the effectiveness of tailored treatment or use of the Rule of 55. Further study through an increase in sample size and data collection would be the most beneficial future direction, as it could reveal significant patterns that exist between these groups.

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