TY - JOUR T1 - Serum ionized magnesium and calcium levels in adult patients with seizures. AU - Sinert,R, AU - Zehtabchi,S, AU - Desai,S, AU - Peacock,P, AU - Altura,B T, AU - Altura,B M, PY - 2007/4/25/pubmed PY - 2007/8/31/medline PY - 2007/4/25/entrez SP - 317 EP - 26 JF - Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation JO - Scand. J. Clin. Lab. Invest. VL - 67 IS - 3 N2 - OBJECTIVE: Prior studies have been equivocal about whether or not serum levels of the divalent ions calcium and magnesium are altered during different types of seizures. Magnesium is a potential modulator of seizure activity because of its ability to antagonize the excitatory calcium influx through the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. We hypothesize that serum ionized levels of calcium (Ca(2+)) and magnesium (Mg(2+)) would be altered significantly during certain types of seizures. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A convenience sample of seizure patients presenting to an emergency department (ED) were enrolled in this prospective study. Novel ion-selective electrodes were used to measure Ca(2+) and Mg(2+). Data were reported as mean values+/-standard deviations. Group comparisons were analyzed by ANOVA with post-hoc testing using the Bonferroni, or the Fisher exact test, where appropriate, alpha = 0.05 (two-tailed). RESULTS: Forty-nine patients with seizure and 32 healthy racially matched controls were included in the study. Seizure patients had a significantly (p<0.001) lower mean Mg(2+), but not total serum Mg and a significantly (p<0.001) higher Ca(2+)/Mg(2+) ratio than that in controls. CONCLUSIONS: We were able to show significantly lower Mg(2+) and higher ionized Ca(2+)/Mg(2+) ratios in seizure patients compared with a racially matched control group. SN - 0036-5513 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/17454846/Serum_ionized_magnesium_and_calcium_levels_in_adult_patients_with_seizures_ L2 - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00365510601051441 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -