Measuring magnesium - Physiological, clinical and analytical perspectives

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant cation in the human body, essential for physiological processes and is the electrolyte with levels commonly deranged in critically ill patients. These derangements of magnesium imbalance can go unnoticed and result in poor clinical outcomes, requiring both worthy attention to abnormal values and accurate tools and methods to measure magnesium reliably. At present, clinical laboratories employ various methodologies for measuring magnesium in blood and urine. This review aims to address the role of magnesium from not only physiological and pathophysiological perspectives, but importantly to review the methods for measuring magnesium with relevant analytical considerations. Given the role of magnesium and drugs for various treatments, measuring magnesium has become more relevant as drugs can lead to magnesium imbalances. Clinical manifestations and etiology of magnesium imbalance as divided into hypomagnesemia and hypermagnesemia are also reviewed.