Received September 4, 2006
Accepted on November 4, 2006
Hypomagnesemia in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
Phuong-Chi T. Pham *1,
Phuong-Mai T. Pham 
,
Son V. Pham 
,
Jeffrey M. Miller 
,
and
Phuong-Thu T. Pham ||
*Nephrology and Hematology/Oncology Division, Department of Medicine, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar, California; Department of Medicine, Maine Medical Center, Lewiston, Maine; Cardiology Division, Sacramento Veterans Administration Medical Center, Sacramento, California; ||Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pctp{at}ucla.edu.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Hypomagnesemia has been reported to occur at an increased frequency among patients with type 2 diabetes compared with their counterparts without diabetes. Despite numerous reports linking hypomagnesemia to chronic diabetic complications, attention to this issue is poor among clinicians. This article reviews the literature on the metabolism of magnesium, incidence of hypomagnesemia in patients with type 2 diabetes, implicated contributing factors, and associated complications. Hypomagnesemia occurs at an incidence of 13.5 to 47.7% among patients with type 2 diabetes. Poor dietary intake, autonomic dysfunction, altered insulin metabolism, glomerular hyperfiltration, osmotic diuresis, recurrent metabolic acidosis, hypophosphatemia, and hypokalemia may be contributory. Hypomagnesemia has been linked to poor glycemic control, coronary artery diseases, hypertension, diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and foot ulcerations. The increased incidence of hypomagnesemia among patients with type 2 diabetes presumably is multifactorial. Because current data suggest adverse outcomes in association with hypomagnesemia, it is prudent to monitor magnesium routinely in this patient population and treat the condition whenever possible.
