A Study of Magnesium Metabolism in Acute Renal Failure Employing a Multichannel Flame Spectrometer

Abstract

THE advances in the knowledge of the pathologic physiology of potassium and sodium during the past decade can be attributed directly to the development of precise and accurate flame photometric methods for their measurement. By contrast, the metabolism of magnesium, its normal variations and its changes in pathologic processes have received but little attention. Magnesium is second only to potassium in terms of intracellular abundance. It is estimated that there is a total of 20 gm. of magnesium in the human body. The present state of knowledge concerning this element, however, is not dissimilar to that prevailing for the alkali . . .