Blood magnesium status of patients with parathyroid disease.

The blood magnesium status--plasma and red blood cell (RBC) concentration and mononuclear blood cell (MBC) content of magnesium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were determined in 6 patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism and 9 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism before and after surgical cure of the disease. The magnesium content of MBCs and concentration of RBCs increased significantly (p less than 0.01) after the surgical correction of primary hyperparathyroidism. Patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism had significant increase (p less than 0.05) of magnesium in RBCs and MBCs compared with the control group. No significant difference was observed for the plasma magnesium concentration for hypoparathyroid patients compared with the control group and hyperparathyroid patients before and after surgical care. These results suggest that endogenous PTH affects the concentration of magnesium in RBCs and magnesium content in MBCs but does not alter significantly the concentration of magnesium in plasma.