[Precordial discomfort and ECG changes of repolarization associated with hypomagnesemia in a young women following colectomy for diffuse colonic lipomatosis].

Aim of this paper is to describe and discuss, on the basis of the available literature, the case of a young woman, previously colectomized for diffuse lipomatosis of the colon, showing hypomagnesemia and symptomatic (precordial discomfort) changes of repolarization phase, detected by ECG, probably due to coronary spasm. This hypomagnesemia (1.4 mEq/1) was probably due to altered intestinal absorption of magnesium, linked to a short bowel syndrome. The ECG changes and the precordial symptom were completely reversed by a relative short treatment with magnesium per os, which increased the magnesium level to low borderline value (1.6 mEq/1). The observation of ECG changes with precordial discomfort, probably linked to hypomagnesemia, suggests the need for routinary magnesium determinations to detect deficiency of this electrolyte, with the scope of improving the diagnosis and the treatment of several symptoms, otherwise difficult to interpret.