Hypomagnesemia in heart failure with ventricular arrhythmias. Beneficial effects of magnesium supplementation.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The study group was 588 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The patients who displayed complex arrhythmias after the first week of hospital medication were randomized 2:1 to double-blind magnesium supplementation or placebo.

A total of 78 patients entered and 68 patients completed the study.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Serum magnesium and potassium levels, urine magnesium excretion and the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias were assessed throughout the study.

The study was carried out in one municipal hospital, providing primary care.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic, Heart Failure, Heart Rate, Magnesium and Stroke Volume.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 588 patients.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2000 (Journal of internal medicine), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.