Hypomagnesaemia During Diabetic Pregnancy: A Risk Factor For Ischaemic Heart Disease

Abstract

Introduction:
Hypomagnesaemia is a relatively common finding in diabetes’, occurring in about 25% of diabetic out patients2. Its origins are not known but it is associated with poor diabetic control3. In diabetic pregnancy deficiency of magnesium may be due to low magnesium contents of diet or abnormal loss of magnesium in deficiency of magnesium may be due to low magnesium contents of diet or abnormal loss of magnesium in urine.

Patients and Methods:
We studied 18 diabetic pregnant female patients and 15 control pregnant women, age ranging between 22 to 45 years. The duration of pregnancy was 6-8 months. They were selected from medical and obstetrical units of B.V. Hospital, Bahawalpur. Four patients were receiving insulin and 14 oral hypoglycemic agents.

Results:
Table4 demonstrated that serum magnesium levels were lower in the diabetic pregnant female patients than in the control subjects, mean values (±SD) being 1.5 ± 0.08 mEq/L and 1.7 ± 0.05 mEq/L respectively; this difference was highly significant (P<O.001).

Discussion:
We observed significant lower levels of serum magnesium in diabetic pregnant women than the control subjects. Our finding  confirm some of the previous studies”3. Hypomagnesaemia occurred most frequently in young, poorly controlled diabetics.