Magnesium repletion and its effect on potassium homeostasis in critically ill adults: results of a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Potassium and Magnesium Sulfate, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

The study group was 32 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Patients were randomized to receive either placebo (n = 15) or magnesium sulfate (n = 17).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Potassium group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Potassium, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Potassium group a baseline to be compared against.

A prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

A surgical intensive care unit (ICU).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Critical Illness, Homeostasis, Hypokalemia, Magnesium Sulfate and Potassium.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Potassium and Magnesium Sulfate in 32 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 15 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1996 (Critical care medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.