Will Hypomagnesemia Induce Benign Eyelid Myokymia?

ABSTRACT

Background@#Myokymia consists of involuntary, fine, continuous contraction that spread across the affected striated muscle. Eyelid myokymia, unlike other dystonic facial contracture such as blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm, is assumed to be a benign, self-limited disorder. Eyelid myokymia is associated with stress, fatigue, excercise, and exccessive caffeine use. The pathophysiology is not well understood, but some drugs or brain structural lesions are the cause of the eyelid myokymia. Especially in Korea hypomagnesemia is generally known the main cause of eyelid myokymia, however there are no evidences so far. This study investigated the relation between eyelid myokymia and serum magnesium level. @*Methods@#We performed a cross sectional study on 72 patients with myokymia and 197 controls. We investigated fatigue, sleep quality, alcohol, smoking, caffeine use, and exercise datas by interview. We analyzed laboratory datas including magnesium, calcium, phosphate, thyroid hormone in serum. @*Results@#Demographic characteristics between the patients with myokymia and controls showed no significant differences in age, gender, smoking, and alcohol history. Fatigue and poor sleep quality were significantly higher in the myokymia group than control group. However, any laboratory results including magnesium showed no significant differences between two groups. @*Conclusions@#These data suggested that the eyelid myokymia is not related to the serum magnesium level as well as calcium and phosphate. Only fatigue and sleep quality were shown the relationship with eyelid myokymia.