Low Magnesium Concentration in Erythrocytes of Children With Acute Asthma

Magnesium (mg) is the second most abundant intracellular cation and is involved innumerous physiological functions, including protein folding, intracellular signaling andenzyme catalysis. it has been shown that magnesium deficiency exacerbates pulmonaryairways hyperreactivity. several studies suggest that magnesium level has no effect on asthmabut others had shown a contributory effect. because of its intracellular abundance, the aimof this study was to determine if there was any difference in plasma and intracellular mgconcentrations of children with acute asthma compared to non asthmatic children.twenty nine patients with acute asthma aged 2 toll years admitted to the emergencydepartment of hospital and 37 non asthmatic children with the same age were included inour study. 0.5 ml of heparinized whole blood samples of patients who were meetinginclusion criteria at the onset of admission with bronchoconstriction and before using anymedication was drawn and it was immediately sent to the laboratory. plasma anderythrocytes were separated and stored at -20c and later their mg levels were quantified withatomic absorption spectrophotometry method.the average plasma and intracellular magnesium levels in patients were (0.79 (plus-minus) 0.098mmol/l) and (1.17 (plus-minus) 0.27 mmol/l) respectively. results of 37 non asthmatic persons[plasma (0.85 (plus-minus) 0.1 mmol/l) and erythrocytes (1.33 (plus-minus) 0.21 mmol/l)] showed that therewas no significant difference between plasma mg levels in two groups (p 0.06) butintracellular magnesium level was significantly lower (p 0.03) in patients group.these results indicate that intracellular mg level may be a more accurate method to assessmg level in patients with asthma. hence, determination of mg concentration in erythrocytesmay be used in evaluation of asthma pathophysiology. there are recommendations for usingintravenous mg sulfate in acute asthma, and this study supports the rational for using it inemergency departments for acute severe asthma