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Volume  2 (2024)
Volume  1 (2023)
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VOLUME 1 , ISSUE 2 ( May-August, 2023 ) > List of Articles

Original Article

A Prospective Observational Study to Identify the Role of Magnesium as a Prognostic Indicator in Critically Ill Patients Admitted in the ICU of a Tertiary Care Centre in South India

KK Shameel, Ashwathi Gangadharan, AV Gayathri

Keywords : Critical care, Hypomagnesaemia, Magnesium, Mortality, Ventilatory support

Citation Information : Shameel K, Gangadharan A, Gayathri A. A Prospective Observational Study to Identify the Role of Magnesium as a Prognostic Indicator in Critically Ill Patients Admitted in the ICU of a Tertiary Care Centre in South India. 2023; 1 (2):39-43.

DOI: 10.5005/njem-11015-0017

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 05-12-2023

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2023; The Author(s).


Abstract

Introduction: Magnesium is the fourth most common cation seen in the body. The majority of the magnesium loads are concentrated in bones, soft tissues, and muscle, while only 2% is available extracellular. Magnesium plays a crucial role in regulating enzymatic activity. Serum magnesium levels are found to have a vital role in determining the clinical outcomes of critically ill patients. Aim: To estimate the proportion of critically ill patients with hypomagnesaemia and the predictive capacity of magnesium in assessing the outcome of the patient. Objectives: To estimate the proportion of critically ill patients with hypomagnesaemia and the predictive capacity of magnesium in assessing the outcome of the patient. We also tried to find the correlation between serum magnesium level and APACHE-IV score, serum potassium, need for ventilatory support and duration of ICU stay. Materials and methods: We did a prospective observational study among all critically ill patients admitted to the hospital during the study period. Serum magnesium levels were noted at the baseline, and all patients were chosen based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria and after obtaining informed consent. The information on sociodemographic characteristics and comorbidity profiles was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Blood was taken to estimate serum magnesium and potassium levels and other biochemical investigations. All patients were followed up during their stay in ICU, and their clinical outcomes were noted. The association between hypomagnesaemia and other independent and outcome variables was assessed using the Chi-square test. Correlation analysis was also done to find the relation between serum magnesium and APACHE-IV scores, serum potassium, need for ventilatory support and duration of ICU stay. Results and conclusions: We recruited around 135 critically ill patients. The proportion of patients with hypomagnesaemia was found to be 58.5%. We found a statistically significant association between hypomagnesaemia and gender and potassium levels. We could not find any significant association between serum Mg levels and duration of ICU stay, need for ventilatory support and APACHE-IV score. Our study showed that the prevalence of hypomagnesaemia among the study participants was 58.5%. This highlights the burden of hypomagnesaemia and the importance of monitoring it. We observed a statistically significant relationship between gender and serum potassium level status and distribution of magnesium levels. We did not find any statistical association between APACHE-IV score, the need for ventilatory support and duration of ICU stay with the distribution of magnesium level even though we found that the proportion of hypomagnesaemia among all the clinical outcomes was found to be more when compared with normal and hypermagnesaemia patients. Hence, the importance of serum magnesium levels in critically ill patients cannot be underestimated.

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