Clinical Studies of Magnesium Metabolism

Magnesium Deficiency in Patients on Long-Term Diuretic Therapy for Heart Failure

“…In view of the well-documented magnesuric property of diuretics (Martin et al, 1952;Barker et al, 1959;Smith et al, 1959;Wacker, 1961;Demartini et al, 1967;Parfitt, 1969) the present patients, who had been taking diuretics on average for 3-3 years, had probably lost quite large quantities of magnesium in the urine. One of the major factors in magnesium conservation is reduction of urinary magnesium excretion, so that if excretion is not stimulated by diuretics the obligatory urinary loss may be reduced to less than 1 mEq/day when dietary magnesium is severely restricted (Barnes et al, 1958).…”

“…Administration of diuretics may lead to significant urinary loss of magnesium (Martin et al, 1952;Barker et al, 1959;Smith et al, 1959;Wacker, 1961;Demartini et al, 1967;Parfitt, 1969). Patients with chronic valvular heart disease are often given long-term diuretic therapy for heart failure.…”

Hypomagnesaemia following theophylline or furosemide injection in ewes: renal versus extrarenal effect

“…Diuretics have been shown to produce very different effects on the urinary excretion of magnesium. Many of them cause an increased magnesuria; these include the mercurial diuretics (merbaphen: Keith & Whelan, 1926-27; meralluride: Martin, Mehl & Wertman, 1952; Barker, Elkinton & Clark, 1959;Demartini, Briscoe & Ragan, 1967;mersalyl: Smith, Kyriakopoulos, Mock & Hammarsten, 1959;Barker et al 1959;Smith, Hammarsten & Eliel, 1960;Hanze, 1960;chlormerodrin: Walser & Trounce, 1961;mercurin: Wesson, 1962), thiazidic diuretics (chlorothiazide: Robinson, Murdaugh & Peschel, 1958McCollister, Prasad, Doe & Flink, 1958;Smith et al 1959Smith et al , 1960Hainze, 1960;Demartini et al 1967; hydrochlorothiazide: Hanze, 1960;Wacker, 1961) and P. LAB VOR AND Y. RAYSSIGUIER various diuretic substances: ethacrynic acid (Demartini et al 1967;Duarte, 1968; Abdelhamid, Seyberth & Hinze, 1969), furosemide (Duarte, 1968;Pors-Nielsen, Andersen & Steven, 1969), mefruside (Abdelhamid et al 1969) and ethanol (McCollister et al 1958). There is only one discrepancy, reported by Walser & Trounce (1961) concerning the effect of thiazide diuretics, which decrease excretion of alkaline earths.…”

“…With diuretics causing hypermagnesuria, there is usually a concomitant hypomagnesaemia (Martin et al 1952;Smith et al 1959Smith et al , 1960Wacker, 1961;Duarte, 1968;Halvorsen, 1970) which seems to be a direct effect of the magnesium diuresis, because injection into the animal of an amount of magnesium equal to that lost in the urine prevents the hypomagnesaemia (Wesson, 1962;Duarte, 1968).…”

Plasma and erythrocyte magnesium in Huntington's chorea.

“…In the majority of these instances, the clinical picture has been complicated by concurrent deficiencies, more or less severe, of other ions. Furthermore, patients with hypomagnesaemia exhibiting none of these symptoms have been observed (Martin, Mehl, and Wertman, 1952).…”