Study of serum magnesium levels in diabetes mellitus and its correlation with complications (retinopathy and HbA1c) a cross-sectional study of one year

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycemia with disturbance of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The aim of this study was to estimate serum magnesium levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and correlate it with complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus - glycemic control and retinopathy.Methods: A cross-sectional study of 100 patients with type 2 diabetes, attending Government Medical College and associated Hospital, Jammu over a period of one year from 1st November, 2014 to 30th October, 2015. Detailed history including duration of diabetes, treatment mode, symptoms suggestive of retinopathy and associated diseases such as hypertension and ischemic heart disease were obtained, as per the proforma, followed by physical examination.Results: Majority of patients (38%) of type-2 diabetes mellitus were in the age group of 51-60 years. Males constituting 71% with male to female ratio of 2.45:1. Complications were observed in 48 cases, which mainly included retinopathy 60.42% (all non-proliferative). Maximum patients (79%) had abnormal (>6.5%) glycosylated hemoglobin levels ranging from 6.5 to 12%. Patients with diabetic retinopathy had significantly higher prevalence of hypomagnesaemia compared to patients without retinopathy (58.62 % vs 18.31%).Conclusions: Prevalence of hypomagnesaemia in type 2 diabetes was 30% in the present study. The present study illustrates that as the magnesium level decreases in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, prevalence of retinopathy increases.

Serum Magnesium Level Change in Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Cardiovascular Complications

“…Also, Kareem et al, observed a low serum magnesium level in diabetic patients and the level was lowest in patients with diabetic retinopathy [9]. This is also similar to the findings of Saproo & Singh, who revealed low magnesium levels in diabetic patients and concluded that it can be used as a marker to predict retinopathy [5] . Peters et al, suggested that extracellular and intracellular magnesium deficiency is typical in chronic, stable, mild type 2 diabetes and may be an independent risk factor for the development of the excess cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes [10].…”

“…Also, there was significant negative correlation between serum magnesium and serum potassium, creatinine, grade of nephropathy and A/C ratio ( p=0.003, 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, respectively). While, a positive correlation was found between serum magnesium and serum sodium and glomerular filtration rate (p=0.003, 0.001, respectively) as shown in Table ( 5) and Figs. (1-4).…”

“…Relation between magnesium and diabetes has been studied in many researches [3][4][5][6] in different locations, but according to our best knowledge, this relationship was not studied in Egyptian patients.…”

Study of Serum Magnesium levels in diabetic patients with and without retinopathy.

“…The contributions of micronutrients as potential preventive and therapeutic agents are being investigated in patients of Diabetes Mellitus and their micro vascular and macro vascular complications. 1 Diabetic patients have found to suffer from abnormalities in their zinc, chromium, copper, magnesium and manganese levels. 2 The role of magnesium nowadays is of great scholarly and clinical interest in Diabetes Mellitus.…”

“…5 The possible reason for this deficiency may be the necessity of magnesium for insulin receptor interaction, its secretion, post receptor events like tyrosine kinase mediated phosphorylation and carbohydrate utilization. 1,6 If any of these functions are compromised, it leads to insulin resistance. This is contributed by a) Hyperglycemia, which leads to a further decrease in cellular Mg levels, independent of insulin levels, b) increase urinary Mg loss due to osmotic diuresis c) use of hypolipidemic agents and diuretics increasing urinary Mg loss.…”