Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The association between hypomagnesemia and insulin resistance in diabetes and arterial hypertension has been strongly found, but its role in the metabolic syndrome has not been established.

Objective: To determine the magnesium status of patients with metabolic syndrome.

Materials and methods: We conducted a prospective study on patients followed in the service of Endocrinology-Diabetology since September 2018 including 109 patients. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Patients with or without metabolic syndrome according to the criteria of (NCEP-ATP III), with measurement of magnesemia in all patients. Statistical analysis was univariate for all variables using SPSS software version 22.0.0.

Results: A total of 64 patients (F/M ratio: 4) with metabolic syndrome were compared to 55 control patients (F/M ratio: 3.2), with no significant difference in age (42.3±7.3 years versus 41.5±8.5 years, P=0.34) or sex (P=0.17) between the 2 groups. Mean abdominal perimeter was 101.3±9.3 versus 79.5±7.3 cm in men and 92.4±8.32 vs 72.1±5.6 cm in women. Hypomagnesemia was found in 6.4% of control subjects compared to 59.5% of patients with MS (P<0.01), with mean magnesium level of 0.92 mmol/l and predominant hypomagnesemia in women (P=0.01). In the metabolic syndrome group, hyperglycemia was identified in 28 cases (43.7%), with an average HbA1c at 7.6% versus 6.7% in the control group. Obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension were observed in 36.3%, 51.8% and 18.7%, respectively, whereas in the control group, none of patients were hyperglycaemic, and the frequency of obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension were 13.6%, 8.9% and 5.7%. The lowest serum magnesium levels were observed in dyslipidemic patients (2.34±0.49 mg/dl), versus 5.46±0.75 mg/dl in the control group (P=0.05).

Conclusion: A significantly higher frequency of magnesium deficiency was observed in the metabolic syndrome, hence the need for a systematic evaluation of magnesemic status in these patients with the correction of possible abnormalities.