Hypomagnesemia and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes.

To evaluate if hypomagnesemia, at the time of admission in the Intensive care Unit (ICU), is associated with a higher mortality in critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes. Fourteen consecutive critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes admitted in the ICU of a teaching General Hospital serving an inner city population were enrolled in a follow-up study. Parenteral or enteral nutritional support, surgical procedures, malignancy, traumatism or physical injury, pulmonary and/or cardiovascular diseases, chronic renal failure, hepatic cirrhosis, cerebrovascular disease, and disorders of the thyroid gland, were exclusion criteria.