Prevalence of ACS and Causal Relation of Hypomagnesaemia

Magnesium is an important intracellular cation [1], actually the second most abundant cation after Potassium, which has gained an essential role in normal human homeostasis. Low serum magnesium has been detected commonly in around 12% hospitalized patients and even more commonly in Intensive Care Patients as high as 60 to 65%.

The link of low serum magnesium with acute coronary syndrome is being discussed widely and its actual role is being scrutinized [2,3].

Recently, Hypomagnesaemia has also been found to play an important role in the pathogenesis of a variety of clinical disorders including Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Atherosclerosis and Acute Coronary Syndromes [4-8].

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has been defined as a group of conditions due to decreased blood flow in the coronary arteries. Acute coronary syndrome includes a vast spectrum like: ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI / 30%), non ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI / 25%), or unstable angina (U.A. / 38%).These are described according to ECGs and Cardiac Biomarkers of myocardial necrosis (troponin T, troponin I, and CK MB), in patients presenting with acute cardiac chest pain (Medscape).

Aim: To look for any association between Hypomagnesaemia and Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Materials and Methods: It’s a retrospective study involving 1198 patients who presented to the Accident and Emergency department (A & E), Trauma Center, Rashid Hospital, Dubai, with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) between April 2010 and May 2013.

We reviewed the records of all patients including their clinical history and presentation.

The Magnesium levels of all the patients in the ACS pathway were checked along with, Cardiac biomarkers - Troponin, CPK and CK MB and Lipid profiles were also analyzed.

A Chi-Square test was performed at 5% level of significance to test the null hypothesis of no association between cardiac markers, lipid profile and magnesium level.

Inclusion Criteria: All new patients presenting to A & E Department at Rashid Hospital with an acute coronary syndrome (both NSTEMI & STEMI).

All new patients presenting with non-specific chest pain who test positive for cardiac markers.

All the age groups presenting to A & E Department at Rashid Hospital from 11/04/2010- 30/05/2013 were included. Both the genders were included.

Exclusion Criteria: Patients diagnosed initially with acute coronary syndrome that eventually had negative cardiac markers.

Results: Out of 1198, 1087(91%) patients were male. 49% were between 50 and 75 years of age group whereas 46% were between 25 years and 50 years of age. 77% patients were Asians and 17% belonged to Arabic peninsula. The Magnesium level was normal in 1097(92%), low in 63(5.3%). Troponin was negative in 431(36%) and positive in 767(64%) patients with low, medium and high levels in 338(28.2%), 426(35.5%) and 03(0.3%) respectively.

These results indicate that there is no statistically significant association between Magnesium levels and Troponin groups (positive and negative) (chi-square with two degree of freedom = 3.30, p = 0.192).

Conclusion: Our study proves that there is no significant association between Hypomagnesaemia and Acute Coronary Syndrome.