VARIATIONS IN MAGNESIUM AND POTASSIUM ASSOCIATED WITH ESSENTIAL EPILEPSY

Abstract

In 1934 we reported¹a series of clinical cases in which the plasma magnesium was low. Each of the patients had neuromuscular twitchings or convulsions. One was epileptic, and 2 other epileptic patients had values for the plasma magnesium at the lower limit of normal. Though the chemical aspects of epilepsy have been thoroughly reviewed by Lennox and Cobb²and Madsen³and the biochemical relations of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus discussed by Schmidt and Greenberg,⁴little is known about the possible variations of magnesium during epileptic convulsions. Denis and Talbot⁵reported low plasma magnesium in 2 epileptic children, and Blumgarten and Rohdenburg⁶found low serum magnesium in 4 adults with epilepsy. In view of these observations, particularly the demonstration by Meltzer and Auer,⁷of the anticonvulsant action of magnesium salts, it seemed possible that lack of magnesium by failure to exert the normal