Diuretics, serum and intracellular electrolyte levels, and ventricular arrhythmias in hypertensive men.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Magnesium and Chlorthalidone in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To investigate the patterns of electrolyte abnormalities resulting from thiazide administration and whether they cause ventricular arrhythmias, and to help resolve the controversy over whether clinicians should routinely prescribe potassium-conserving therapy to all patients treated with thiazides.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 233 men taking part.

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

A total of 233 hypertensive men aged 35 to 70 years.

Participants were withdrawn from prior diuretic treatment and were replenished with oral potassium chloride and magnesium oxide.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Magnesium and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Magnesium could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Blood Pressure, Chlorthalidone, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory, Electrolytes, Hydrochlorothiazide and Hypertension.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Magnesium and Chlorthalidone in 233 men.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1992 (JAMA), a journal based in United States.

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