A Case of Primary Hypomagnesemia

ABSTRACT

Primary hypomagnesemia is a rare inherited disorder and it is considered to be due to either a defect in the intestinal transport of magnesium or a defect in renal tubular transport. It is important to measure the urinary excretion of magnesium to differentiate the causes of magnesium deficiency. We report here an one-month-old female infant of primary hypomagnesemia who presented generalized tonic-clonic seizures. She had hypomagnesemia(<1.5mg/dL) and several seizure attacks but normal magnesium creatinine ratio in random urine and normal magnesium excretion in 24-hour urine. Continuous oral magnesium supplementation was necessary to avoid the recurrence of symptoms and maintain serum rnagnesium levels.