Frequency and risk factors associated with hypomagnesaemia in hypokalemic type-2 diabetic patients.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency and factors associated with hypomagnesaemia in hypokalemic type-2 diabetic patients presenting at Civil Hospital, Karachi. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Medicine and Diabetic Clinic of Civil Hospital and Dow Medical College, Karachi, from November 2010 to May 2011. METHODOLOGY A total of 358 adult type-2 diabetics with hypokalemia were selected for this study. With aseptic measures, venous blood was collected for serum magnesium, potassium, HDLc, LDLc Triglyceride (TGs) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) from each subject after an overnight fasting and was analyzed on Roche Hitachi 820 Photo Spectrometry. The data was analyzed on SPSS version 17 to determine the factors associated with hypomagnesaemia like duration of diabetes, Body Mass Index (BMI), diabetic nephropathy, HDLc, LDLc Triglyceride (TGs) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level. RESULTS Mean age of study population was 55.62 ± 9.9 years. Most of them (n=228, 63.7%) were males. Out of the 358 subjects, 198 (55.3%) had hypomagnesaemia. There was significant association between hypomagnesaemia with duration of diabetes, Body Mass Index (BMI), diabetic nephropathy, HDLc, LDLc Triglyceride (TGs) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level. CONCLUSION Hypomagnesaemia is very common in type-2 diabetic hypokalemic patients. Therefore, it should be routinely sought by the clinicians. Early recognition and subsequent treatment of hypomagnesaemia may help in better glycemic control, may delay the chronic complications and decrease the mortality in diabetic hypokalemic patients.