Low Serum Magnesium Level Is Associated with Microalbuminuria in Chinese Diabetic Patients

Whether serum magnesium deficiency is independently associated with the prevalence of microalbuminuria is still unclear. The objective of the present study was to elucidate the association between serum magnesium and microalbuminuria in diabetic patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 1829 diabetic subjects (aged ≥ 40 years) from Shanghai, China. Subjects were divided into three groups according to serum magnesium tertiles. A first-voided early-morning spot urine sample was obtained for urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR) measurement. Microalbuminuria was defined as 30 mg/g ≤ UACR < 300 mg/g. Overall, 208 (11.37%) of the study population had microalbuminuria, with similar proportions in both genders (P = 0.44). The prevalence of microalbuminuria in tertile 1 of serum magnesium was higher than the prevalence in tertile 2 and tertile 3 (15.98%, 9.72%, and 8.46%, resp.; P for trend <0.0001). After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, blood pressure, lipidaemic profile, HbA1c, eGFR, history of cardiovascular disease, HOMA-IR, antihypertensive and antidiabetic medication, and diabetes duration, we found that, compared with the subjects in tertile 3 of serum magnesium, those in tertile 1 had 1.85 times more likeliness to have microalbuminuria. We concluded that low serum magnesium level was significantly associated with the prevalence of microalbuminuria in middle-aged and elderly Chinese.