Magnesium supplementation improves mineral bone disorder in dialysis patients: Study

China: Guangying Guo and colleagues have found in a new study that Magnesium (Mg) supplementation alone might ameliorate chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD) by modulating serum Calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) metabolism and reducing carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in hemodialysis (HD) patients in research. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition on 14th September 2021.

CKD-MBD is a wide and complicated CKD-related illness characterized by abnormal blood calcium (Ca), phosphate (P), and PTH. These anomalies are thought to lead to vascular calcification (VC), which raises the risk of CVD and all-cause mortality and is a major factor in HD patients' poor prognosis. According to the researchers, the positive benefits were attributable to the function magnesium supplementation plays in controlling serum calcium and parathyroid hormone metabolism, as well as lowering carotid intima-media thickness. The researcher conducted this study to assess the Mg supplementation on CKD-MBD in patients requiring dialysis.

The meta-analysis includes a total of eight randomized controlled studies done in the United States, Turkey, Iran, Pisa, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The studies included 309 hemodialysis patients with intervention durations ranging from one month to six months; five trials were double-blind.

Key Findings:

o The researchers discovered that magnesium supplementation had no effect on serum magnesium, calcium, phosphate, or CRP levels.

o Researchers discovered a substantial improvement in serum magnesium when provided through dialysate and calcium when administered orally when doing a subgroup analysis depending on intervention modality (oral vs. dialysate).

o Additionally, magnesium supplementation had a detrimental influence on blood PTH levels and CIMT.

In conclusion, Guo and colleagues argue that further high-quality clinical trials and large-sample-size prospective studies are needed, they write that the findings "provide further evidence for physicians that Mg can be prescribed as a type of assisted therapy to HD patients with CKD-MBD."

References:

Guo, G., Zhou, J., Xu, T., Sheng, Z., Huang, A., Sun, L., & Yao, L. (2021). Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on Chronic Kidney Disease-Mineral and Bone Disorder in Hemodialysis Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Renal Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jrn.2021.07.009