Hypomagnesemia in patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: decreased magnesium levels are found with increasing frequency among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus as compared with their counterparts without diabetes. there are several studies which show a link between type 2 diabetes and decreased magnesium levels. awareness of this seems to be very poor among physicians. this article reviews the literature,incidence of hypomagnesemia in patients with type 2 diabetes,implicated contributing factors. aim: to assess the frequency of hypomagnesemia among patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus and to see the relationship between decreased magnesium levels and various diabetic complications. methods: one hundred type 2 diabetes mellitus patients,who reported to out patient department of gujranwala medical college gujranwala with uncontrolled hyperglycemia and/or various diabetic complications were studied. serum magnesium was assessed at admission and rechecked in those found to be deficient. results: hypomagnesemia (se magnesium <1.6mg/dl) was documented in 22(22%) with diabetes mellitus. mean hba1c was 10.5% in the hypomagnesemic patients compared with9.5% in controls (p =0.0016). nephropathy,retinopathy,neuropathy and foot ulcers were présent in 42.2%,61.5%,56.5% and 18.5% respectively,of the patients with hypomagnesemia as compared with 33.6% (p =0.118),40.5% (p =0.704),(p =0.566),46.5% (p=0.011) and 10.5% (p =0.976) without hypomagnesemia. coronary artery disease was less common in the hypomagnesemia group (18.6% vs38%) conclusion: hypomagnesemia in diabetes was associated with poorer glycemic control,retinopathy,nephropathy,and foot ulcers.