Correlation of serum magnesium with dyslipidemia in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

This study was performed to determine the correlation between serum magnesium (Mg) and dyslipidemia in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). This hospital-based cross-sectional observational study was conducted at the Department of Nephro-Urology, Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, Pakistan, from April 2008 to June 2008. Fifty patients with end-stage kidney disease on MHD treatment (33 males and 17 females) were studied. The mean duration on HD was 7.58 ± 2.05 years, with frequency being two to three sessions/week, and each session lasted for four hours. After obtaining informed written consent, the general information of each patient was recorded on a proforma. After overnight fasting, blood samples was drawn from the arterio-venous fistula for lipid profile, lipoprotein, serum Mg, serum creatinine, blood urea, serum calcium and serum phosphorus. Dyslipidemia was defined as presence of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels more then 95 th percentile for age and gender or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels less then 35 mg/dL. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 16.0. The mean age of the study patients was 45.68 ± 13.97 years. There was a significant positive correlation between serum Mg and serum lipoprotein-a (LP-a) (r = 0.40, P < 0.007), serum HDL (r = 0.31, P < 0.01) and serum TG (r = 0.35, P < 0.005). There was no significant correlation between serum Mg and serum LDL-c and serum TC. The serum TG and LP-a levels were significantly increased while HDL-c was significantly lower in MHD patients. The serum TC, LDL-c and very low-density lipoprotein-c were not significantly elevated. We conclude that patients with chronic kidney disease undergoing MHD show positive correlation between serum Mg and serum HDL, LP-a and TG. The abnormalities of lipid metabolism, such as hyper-triglyceridemia, elevated LP-a and low HDL-c, could contribute to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease in these patients.