Sanjeeb Roy1 , Kallol Bhattacharjee2 , Nabaruna Paul3
BACKGROUND Stroke or cerebrovascular accident is defined as an abrupt onset of a neurologic deficit that is attributable to a focal vascular cause. It is the second most common cause of mortality in the world. Magnesium is one of the most important and clinically significant intracellular bivalent cations. The possible explanations by which magnesium brings down the risk of ischemic cerebral infarction involve an improvement in endothelial function and also the inhibition of platelet aggregation. We wanted to estimate the serum magnesium levels in acute ischemic stroke, predict the neurological outcome in patients of acute ischemic stroke and evaluate its correlation with serum magnesium levels. METHODS This study was conducted in the Department of General Medicine, Silchar Medical College and Hospital for a duration of 18 months. This is a case control study that included 126 cases of acute ischemic stroke and an equal number of age and sex matched healthy controls. The serum magnesium was estimated using a VITROS 5600 autoanalyzer. RESULTS The highest incidence of Acute Ischemic Stroke was observed in the age group of 50-69 years with an overall male preponderance of ischemic stroke. The mean serum magnesium level was significantly lower in cases as compared to controls (p<0.05) and patients with lower serum magnesium levels had a higher mean MRS score at discharge or death. CONCLUSIONS Serum magnesium level is an independent risk factor for acute ischemic stroke. Low serum magnesium levels in ischemic stroke patients on admission were strongly associated with a poorer neurological outcome.
