Prevalence of magnesium and potassium deficiencies in the elderly.

Concentrations of magnesium and potassium in erythrocytes and plasma were determined in a population of 381 unselected elderly men and women, most of them in their eighties. The effects of biological factors (age, sex, weight) and a large set of pathological conditions, malignant or not, were examined. Analyses of variance showed a relation between age and concentrations of plasma potassium and between weight and concentrations of plasma magnesium. The chi-square test showed correlations between low concentrations of plasma magnesium and diabetes, abuse of alcohol and tobacco, and also between low values for erythrocyte magnesium and hypertension. Low values for plasma potassium were correlated with hypertension whereas high values were correlated with cardiovascular disease. Although some of the differences in the mean concentrations observed were statistically significant, these differences were always small. Most interesting was the distribution of the concentrations of the cations. This study shows that assays of both of these cations in erythrocytes were better than assays in plasma to evidence a deficiency. Indeed, about 20% of the studied population had low concentrations of both erythrocyte potassium and magnesium, whereas 2 and 10% had low values for plasma potassium and magnesium, respectively. This study underlines the large prevalence of magnesium and potassium deficiencies in the elderly, an observation we could not attribute to pathology or treatment. Routine electrolyte studies therefore appear to be justified in aged human subjects.

[Very-high-dose droperidol and brain stem injuries]. / Dropéridol a très haute posologie et traumatismes du tronc cérébral

Treating four comatose children with severe injuries of the brain stem, suffering from severe autonomic disorders without any indications for neurosurgery, we were led to increase gradually the doses of neuroleptics used as basis of treatment, the main one being Droperidol. The increase in dosage, often reaching very high doses, was rendered necessary owing to a phenomenon comparable to that of addiction, a steadily increasing dose was necessary each day to obtain the same beneficial effects of autonomic stabilization. A complete cure was obtained on each occasion, at the end of a coma varying between 20 days and two and a half months. The extreme case was the last case in which we were led to give in a single day, 7 grams of the drug to a 12 years old child, who completely recovered his motor and intellectual functions after a coma lasting thirty five days. Comparison of the four cases led us to suppose that the result is all the better when treatment with neuroleptics is started soon after the accident, in low dosage but regularly increased without fixing any other ceiling than the effect obtained, the toxicity of Droperidol seemed to us very low, even in very high dosage, provided the conditions of gradualness are respected. Although it is classical to say that the prognosis of trauma of the brain stem is more favourable in children than in adults, we are certain that such treatment contributed considerably to avoid a fatal issue or chronic invalidism.