A Hospital Based Descriptive Study of Serum Magnesium Levels in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and Healthy Controls

Background: Liver cirrhosis is a growing health problem and mortality from this condition is increasing rapidly among both men and women.Cirrhosis rarely causes signs and symptoms in its early stages, but as liver function deteriorates, the signs and symptoms appear, including fatigue, nausea, unintended weight loss, jaundice, bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract, intense itching and swelling in the legs and abdomen.Micronutrients play a significant role in liver diseases.Magnesium is the second most abundant intracellular ion and the fourth most abundant cation in the body.The role of trace elements like magnesium in pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis and its complications is still not clearly understood, this study was conducted to evaluate magnesium levels in patients with liver cirrhosis and to assess their association with severity of disease. Materials and Methods:This study was hospital-based case control observational study.The study was conducted at Central Lab, Department of Biochemistry, SMS Medical College & attached Hospitals, Jaipur.In this study, 92 cases of liver cirrhosis patients were taken and 92 sample size was taken in healthy controls. Result:The mean serum magnesium levels of cases (1.13 0.21) is lower as compared to controls (2.07 0.27). Conclusion:The study showed that, decreased magnesium levels in liver Cirrhotic patients as compared to controls which were statistically significant.The use of these simple and cost-effective biochemical parameter might prove to be biomarker in early detection of liver cirrhosis and may help to identify patients with liver cirrhosis.