The Association Between Serum Magnesium Level and Microalbuminuria in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Background: Diabetic nephropathy occurs in 20 - 30% of diabetic cases globally, and microalbuminuria (MA) is the first symptom of this disorder. Some studies have suggested that there is an association between the serum magnesium (Mg) level and MA. Objectives: Therefore, we investigated the association between the serum Mg level and MA in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on 122 subjects with T2DM. We categorized them into two groups of microalbuminuria (MA) and non-microalbuminuria (NMA) according to their urine albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR). MA was considered as a UACR of 30 to 300 mg/g. Participants were excluded if they had the following conditions: The age of under 16 years, cardiac, renal, or hepatic disorders, using corticosteroids, diuretics, Mg /calcium (Ca) supplements, and antiepileptic drugs, heavy physical activity within 24 hours before the test, pregnant and breastfeeding women, febrile patients, and patients who were unwilling to participate in the study. The analysis was performed using SPSS version 15. A P-value 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among the patients, 50.81% were male. Also, the mean body mass index (BMI) of the NMA group was greater than the MA group (29.84±5.64 vs. 27.31±3.14, P-value = 0.003). Mg levels of the MA and NMA groups showed no significant differences (2.13± 0.42 and 2.10±0.43, respectively; P-value = 0.67). Overall, data analysis provided no significant difference between Mg level and the urine albumin concentration between the MA and NMA groups (P-value = 0.21 and 0.81, respectively.). Conclusions: Serum Mg level and MA have no significant relationship. Further prospective studies are needed to assay this issue.