Sahul Hameed Peer Mohamed1, Gopal Bagialakshmi2, Nagarajan Ragavan3, Rajendran Kapil4, Santhana Krishnan Ramesh Kumar5
BACKGROUND
Serum magnesium levels in critically-ill ICU patients and its correlation with the prognosis of the patients have been studied. Low serum magnesium levels were seen in critically ill and it was associated increased mortality.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
It is a prospective observational study involving 100 critically-ill medical patients admitted in Intensive Medicine Care Unit of Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. A detailed medical history, clinical examination, random blood sugar, serum electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium), ECG, ABG analysis, complete haemogram and APACHE scoring were done. Chi-square test was used to assess the statistical significance of qualitative data.
RESULTS
Of the 100 patients, 52 (52%) were males and 48 (48%) were females. Age group from 51-60 years contributed as the major study population. On admission, 50% (50/100) patients had hypomagnesaemia, 39% (39/100) had normal serum magnesium levels and 11% had hypermagnesaemia. The hypomagnesaemia group had increased number of days in ICU, increased incidences of ventilatory support and more duration of ventilation and higher mortality compared with normo or hypermagnesaemia group.
CONCLUSION
Hypomagnesaemia in critically-ill medical patients is a poor prognostic indicator in terms of duration of IMCU stay, ventilator dependency and all-cause mortality.
