Payal Mukker, Kala Syamala Kumari Narayanan
BACKGROUND We wanted to evaluate the association of serum magnesium with diabetes mellitus and serum lipid profile and its microvascular complications. METHODS 90 participants (30 DM with microvascular complications, 30 DM without microvascular complications and 30 controls) aged 40 to 80 years were enrolled in the present cross-sectional study. Hypertensives, alcoholics, participants with diarrhoea and history of drug use (digoxin, corticosteroids etc.) were excluded. History, physical examination findings, biochemical parameters, ECG findings, nerve conduction study and ophthalmoscopic examination findings were collected. Tests of significance were ANOVA, independent sample ‘t’ test, Kruskal Wallis test, Mann Whitney U test and Chi-square test. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Significantly lower serum magnesium was observed among participants with neuropathy (p<0.001), nephropathy (p<0.001) and retinopathy (p<0.001) and among diabetics without family history of DM (p=0.02). No association of ADA glycaemic goal and serum magnesium was observed. Significant association of serum magnesium with TC (p<0.001; OR: 9.5, 95% CI 2.7- 33.9), serum LDL (p<0.001; OR: 0.01, 95% CI 0.002-0.1), retinopathy (p=0.03; OR: 0.2, 95% CI 0.04-0.9), nephropathy (p=0.001; OR: 0.1, 95% CI 0.03-0.4) was observed. CONCLUSIONS There is a linear relationship between duration of DM and serum magnesium, severe hypomagnesaemia among participants with microvascular complications. Participants with hypomagnesaemia had significantly higher blood glucose, urea, serum creatinine, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and triglycerides. No association between ADA glycaemic control and serum magnesium was observed. Further studies are required to evaluate the pathophysiological role of magnesium in DM and diabetes dyslipidaemia.
