The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation for Correcting Hypokalemia in Gitelman Syndrome

Moon, Joong Don; Han, Sang Woong; Kim, Ho Jung

Abstract

BACKGOUND: Gitelman's syndrome is manifested by hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, normal blood pressure, hyperreninemic hyperaldosteronism, hypomagnesemia and hypocalciuria. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of magnesium supplementation for correcting hypokalemia in Gitelman syndrome.
METHODS
A Gitelman patient without hyperaldosteronism in our hospital was studied, oral supplementation periods of regimens for 60 days were divided into eight stages (each stage is at least over 5 days) such as 1 stage:no regimen supplementation period 2 stage:spironolactone 100 mg, alone period 3 stage:spironolactone 100 mg, MgO 1 g mixed period, 4 stage:spironolactone 100 mg, alone period, 5 stage:spironolactone 100 mg, MgO 1 g mixed period, 6 stage:spironolactone 150 mg, MgO 1 g mixed period, 7 stage: spironolactone 150 mg, MgO 1.5 g mixed period, 8 stage:spironolactone 150 mg, MgO 1.5 g, KCl 3.6 g mixed period.
RESULTS
The highest value of plasm [K] was 3.3 mEq/L, the lowest value of TTKG was 2.6 during 3 stage, plasm [K] had tendency to increased and TTKG decreased, however next during 4 stage, the tendency of correcting hypokalemia diminished. The highest value of plasm [K] was only 3.3 mEq/L during 7 stage, the highest value of plasm [K] was 4.6 mEq/L during 8 stage. And the highest value of plasm ionized [Mg++] was 0.44 mmol/L during MgO 1.5 g supplementation.
CONCLUSION
Magnesium alone fails to completely correct potassium and magnesium depletion despite tendency of correcting. Therefore, the optimal therapeutic regimens for correcting hypokalemia in Gitelman syndrome without hyperaldosteronism would be the magnesium and additional K supplementation.