Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Q: What one caveat should be known in chronically malnourished ICU patients regarding their magnesium level? 


Answer:  About 30% of magnesium is bound to albumin and is inactive. Hypoalbuminemia  may give spuriously low magnesium levels. Only free magnesium is biologically active but most methods of assessing the serum content measure total magnesium concentration. There is no formula to adjust and ionized magnesium can be obtained only by direct measurement.

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