Study of serum magnesium and its correlations in diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT

Fasting concentrations of magnesium and related parameters were measured in 90 diabetic patients categorized into insulin treated [34], non-insulin treated [40] and untreated diabetics [16]. Compared with age and weight matched 40 control groups, serum concentrations of magnesium were significantly lower in untreated [p <.02] and overall diabetic patients [p < 0.05]. The concentration was the lowest in the insulin-treated group [p< 0.01]. There was significant increase in the values of urine magnesium/day in non-insulin treated [p < 0.02] and overall diabetics [p < 0.02] as compared to controls. Maximum urinary loss of magnesium [7.4 mEq/day, p <0.01] was found in patients of untreated diabetes mellitus. In all diabetics, serum magnesium concentrations were inversely related to serum glucose values [r = -0.61, p < 0.02] and in non-insulin treated and overall diabetics to insulin concentration [r = -0.21, p < 0.05 and r = -0.19, p < 0.05 respectively]. There was again a negative correlation of serum magnesium with glycosylated hemoglobin [HbAlc] in insulin treated [r= -0.61, p< 0.02] and overall diabetics [r = -0.45, p < 0.02]. Serum magnesium positively correlated with age [r = 0.36, p<0.02] and inversely related with ketone bodies [r=-0.28, p < 0.05] when results for all groups of diabetics were pooled