Abstract P120: Prevalence of Ventricular Premature Beats Decreases With Serum Magnesium in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction: Ventricular premature beats (VPB) predict cardiovascular mortality among several adult populations. Controlled dietary magnesium (Mg) depletion studies demonstrated that diminished Mg intake and status induced VPB and other arrhythmias. Thus, we hypothesized that the prevalence of VPB is closely associated with serum Mg concentrations in a general adult population at high cardiovascular risk. Methods: Anthropometric, demographic and lifestyle characteristics were assessed in 750 Cree adults, >18yrs, who participated in an age-stratified, cross-sectional health survey in Quebec, Canada. Holter electrocardiograms recorded heart rate variability and cardiac arrhythmias for two consecutive hours. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate potential associations between serum Mg and VPB. Results: VPB prevalence in adults with hypomagnesaemia (serum Mg ≤ 0.70mmol/L) was over twice that of adults without hypomagnesaemia (50% vs. 21%, p =0.015); results were not materially altered when adults with cardiovascular disease history were excluded. All hypomagnesaemic adults with VPB had type 2 diabetes. Prevalence of VPB declined across the serum Mg concentration gradient in adults with type 2 diabetes only ( p 0.70 mmol/L was 0.24 (95%CI: 0.06-0.98; p =0.046). Conclusions: Prevalence of VPB significantly declined across the serum Mg concentration gradient in adults with type 2 diabetes, indicating that future interventions to increase levels of serum Mg among adults with type 2 diabetes may confer protection against cardiac arrhythmia.