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Forty-two elderly patients were subjected to a nutritional assessment and an intravenous magnesium load (0.5 mmol/kg). After 48 h, patients with protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM) showed magnesium retentions (MgR) above 20 per cent, thus indicating magnesium deficit, and greater (P < 0.001) than those from well-nourished patients. The discriminating cross-point for undernourished patients was at 28 per cent with 95 per cent sensibility and specificity. There were significant correlations between MgR and most nutritional parameters. An increase of the RMg constitutes a PCM indicator which may be useful to quantify it.

Spontaneous pyomyositis (primary pyomyositis) is an infrequent disease in non-tropical countries, caused by bacterial infection of skeletal muscle. Although pyomyositis is associated in many cases to septicemia, the occurrence of that disease as a secondary manifestation of bacteremia is very unusual, requiring a high-grade index of suspicion to diagnose it in the early stages. We present one case of cervical pyomyositis, caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum and group F streptococcus, during the course of a sepsis of sinusal origin, that was treated without surgical therapy. This so uncommon form of presentation of Fusobacterium septicemia, its diagnosis and treatment are discussed.