Comparison of Maternal Serum Magnesium Level in Pre-eclampsia and Normal Pregnant Women

BACKGROUND Preeclampsia is a pregnancy multisystem disorder of unknown etiology. It is a significant cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES Due to the significant role of magnesium in physiological regulation of blood pressure, this study was conducted to measure the level of magnesium in pre-eclampsia and control groups since the beginning of the pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS We enrolled 500 pregnant women with gestational age of 18-22 weeks who had referred to the Section of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Hafez hospital of Shiraz. Initially, blood samples were obtained from all subjects. 26 cases with diagnosis of preeclampsia were detected at the next referral. For each case, two normal pregnant women, at the same gestational age, were considered as the control group. The second blood samples were obtained from all the cases and controls. All of the samples were sent to check the level of magnesium. The data was analyzed with the SPSS and Student's t-test. RESULTS The initial level of magnesium in pre-eclampsia women was not only significantly less than the control group (1.81 ± 0.25 mg/dl vs. 2.3 ± 0.44 mg/dl, P < 0.001), but also the secondary level was low, when the diagnosis was confirmed (1.72 ± 0.38 mg/dl vs. 2.2 ± 0.63 mg/dl, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS We found a gradual decrease in mean serum magnesium level with increasing period of gestation in the pre-eclampsia women. This implicates that the level of magnesium in preeclampsia was lower than the control group since the beginning of pregnancy. According to our results, checking the level of magnesium should be considered as the predicting factor of preeclampsia during the first evaluation of pregnancy.