Jasleen Kaur1, Satya Bhushan Nayyar2, Tejinder Sikri3, Jasmine Kaur4, Hardeep Singh Deep5
BACKGROUND
World Health Organization (WHO) clinically defines a stroke as ‘the rapid
development of clinical signs and symptoms of a focal neurological disturbance
lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause other than
vascular origin’. Hypo magnesia (ionized form) leads to neuromuscular
hyperirritability, tremors, increased vascular resistance, coronary vasospasm and
hypertension. Magnesium deficiency triggers vasoconstriction enhancing vascular
endothelial injury and hence leads to atherosclerosis. In the present study, we
wanted to evaluate serum magnesium levels in ischemic cerebral stroke patients
and correlate its severity with the neurological disability using modified Rankin
scale (mRS) and Canadian neurological scale.
METHODS
It was a longitudinal observational study, undertaken in the Department of
Medicine in Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sri
Amritsar from December 2018 to June 2020. 60 patients with acute ischemic
cerebral stroke fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected. 5 ml venous sample
for serum magnesium level was taken within 24 hours and on day 5 of admission.
Presence or absence of hypomagnesemia in patients after acute cerebral ischemic
stroke was recorded during the hospital stay of patients, receiving standard
management protocol of ischemic stroke. The correlation co-efficient of serum
magnesium level with modified Rankin scale and Canadian neurological scale was
calculated.
RESULTS
The mean age of patients was 61.6 ± 1.6 years, 42 (70 %) patients were male
and 18 (30 %) were females and there was male preponderance. The mean serum
magnesium level was measured as 1.78 ± 0.2 mg/dL, it was observed that the
mean value for mRS was 3.93 ± 0.75 and Canadian neurological scale was 7.11
± 2.01 within 24 hours and on the 5th day the mean value for mRS was 3.5 ± 1.09
and Canadian neurological scale was 8.02 ± 2.97. The present study observed a
statistically significant correlation between mRS score and serum magnesium level
as well as Canadian neurological scale and serum magnesium levels.
CONCLUSIONS
It was concluded through the results of this study that low levels of magnesium in
the body can cause more severe stroke.
