ASSOCIATION OF MATERNAL SERUM MAGNESIUM LEVEL WITH GESTATIONAL DIABETES MELLITUS

Nigar Sultana*, Mehnaz Rashida Hossain, Md. Hasanul Haque, Jenifa Haque Zuthy, Mousumee Mondal and Nazmul Haider Chawdhary

ABSTRACT

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common medical disorder of pregnancy, associated with an increased risk of poor maternal and fetal outcome. So the current study was done to find out the association of low serum magnesium levels with GDM. This was a case-control study among purposively selected pregnant women matched for age and gestational age attending the inpatient and outpatient department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH), Matuail, Dhaka, from September 2020 to August 2021. A total of 92 singleton pregnant women between 18-35 years of age were included in this study in their 24-40 weeks of gestation. Among them, 46 diagnosed women with GDM were considered the cases, and the rest of the 46 matched healthy pregnant women were selected as controls. Their serum magnesium level was measured in the laboratory of the Department of Biochemistry in BSMMU, Dhaka. Descriptive analysis was done using the analytic software SPSS v27.0, where required. The overall average serum magnesium levels in both the cases and controls were 1.57±0.28 mg/dL and 1.79±0.33 mg/dL, respectively. Considering serum magnesium level of 1.7 mg/dL as a cut-off value, odd’s ratio calculation showed GDM incidence was 3.22 times more likely in pregnant women with low serum magnesium level (<1.7) than those with ≥1.7 mg/dL (OR=3.215; 95% CI=1.368-7.557). There was significant negative correlation of serum magnesium level with both fasting blood sugar level (r=-0.215, p=0.039) and 2hrs after 75g glucose level (r= -0.348, p=0.001). In conclusion a low level of serum magnesium was found strongly associated with GDM.

Keywords: GDM, serum magnesium (Mg) level.