Sedighi Mostafa, Pourpak Zahra, Bavarian Behrouz, Safaralizadeh Reza, Zare Ahad, Moin Mostafa
Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Children Medical Center, No. 62, Dr. Gharib St, Keshavarz Blvd, Tehran 14194, Iran.
Iran J Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2006 Dec;5(4):183-6.
Magnesium (Mg) is the second most abundant intracellular cation and is involved in numerous physiological functions, including protein folding, intracellular signaling and enzyme catalysis. It has been shown that magnesium deficiency exacerbates pulmonary airways hyper reactivity. Several studies suggest that magnesium level has no effect on asthma but others had shown a contributory effect. Because of its intracellular abundance the aim of this study was to determine if there was any difference in plasma and intracellular Mg concentrations of children with acute asthma compared to non asthmatic children. Twenty nine patients with acute asthma aged 2 to11 years admitted to the emergency department of hospital and 37 non asthmatic children with the same age were included in our study. 0.5 mL of heparinized whole blood samples of patients who were meeting inclusion criteria at the onset of admission with bronchoconstriction and before using any medication was drawn and it was immediately sent to the laboratory. Plasma and erythrocytes were separated and stored at -20C and later their Mg levels were quantified with atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. The average plasma and intracellular magnesium levels in patients were (0.79 +/- 0.098 mmol/L) and (1.17 +/- 0.27 mmol/L) respectively. Results of 37 non asthmatic persons [plasma (0.85 +/- 0.1 mmol/L ) and erythrocytes (1.33 +/- 0.21 mmol/L)] showed that there was no significant difference between plasma Mg levels in two groups (p 0.06) but intracellular magnesium level was significantly lower (p 0.03) in patients group. These results indicate that intracellular Mg level may be a more accurate method to assess Mg level in patients with asthma. Hence, determination of Mg concentration in erythrocytes may be used in evaluation of asthma pathophysiology. There are recommendations for using intravenous Mg sulfate in acute asthma, and this study supports the rational for using it in emergency departments for acute severe asthma.
镁（Mg）是细胞内第二丰富的阳离子，参与多种生理功能，包括蛋白质折叠、细胞内信号传导和酶催化。研究表明，镁缺乏会加剧气道高反应性。多项研究表明镁水平对哮喘无影响，但也有其他研究显示其有一定作用。鉴于其在细胞内的丰富含量，本研究旨在确定急性哮喘患儿与非哮喘患儿的血浆和细胞内镁浓度是否存在差异。我们的研究纳入了29名年龄在2至11岁、因急性哮喘入住医院急诊科的患者，以及37名同年龄段的非哮喘儿童。在入院时出现支气管收缩且尚未使用任何药物的符合纳入标准的患者中，抽取0.5 mL肝素化全血样本，并立即送往实验室。分离出血浆和红细胞，储存在-20℃，随后用原子吸收分光光度法对其镁水平进行定量。患者的平均血浆和细胞内镁水平分别为（0.79±0.098 mmol/L）和（1.17±0.27 mmol/L）。37名非哮喘者的结果[血浆（（（0.85±0.1 mmol/L）和红细胞（1.33±0.21 mmol/L）]显示，两组血浆镁水平无显著差异（p = 0.06），但患者组的细胞内镁水平显著较低（p = 0.03）。这些结果表明，细胞内镁水平可能是评估哮喘患者镁水平的更准确方法。因此，测定红细胞中的镁浓度可用于评估哮喘的病理生理学。有建议在急性哮喘中使用静脉注射硫酸镁，本研究支持在急诊科用于急性重症哮喘的合理性。
