Hypomagnesemia and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes

To evaluate if hypomagnesemia, at the time of admission in the Intensive care Unit (ICU), is associated with a higher mortality in critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes. Fourteen consecutive critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes admitted in the ICU of a teaching General Hospital serving an inner city population were enrolled in a follow-up study. Parenteral or enteral nutritional Support, surgical procedures, malignancy, traumatism or physical injury, pulmonary and/or cardiovascular diseases, chronic renal failure, hepatic cirrhosis, cerebrovascular disease, and disorders of the thyroid gland, were exclusion criteria. Hypomagnesemia was defined by serum magnesium levels < 0.66 mmol/L (1.6 mg/dL). At the time of admission in the ICU, 10 (71.4%) individuals had hypomagnesemia. Mortality rates in the hypomagnesemic and normomagnesemic individuals were 80 and 25%, respectively. Serum magnesium levels were significantly lower in the subjects who died (0.51 [0.41, 0.621 mmol/L) compared with those who survived (0.85 [0.65, 1.11], mmol/L), p = 0.01. The logistic regression model adjusted by APACHE II score and hsCRP levels showed that hypomagnesemia is independently associated with mortality (OR 1.9, CI, 95% 1.2-14.7). Hypomagnesemia at the time of admission in the ICU seems to be associated with high mortality in critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes.