Hypomagnesemia Symptoms
Some patients are asymptomatic. Clinical manifestations include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, weakness, personality change, tetany (e.g. positive Trousseau or Chvostek sign or spontaneous carpopedal spasm, hyperreflexia), and tremor and muscle fasciculations.
Trousseau sign is the precipitation of carpal spasm by reduction of the blood supply to the hand with a tourniquet or blood pressure cuff inflated to 20 mm Hg above systolic blood pressure applied to the forearm for 3 minutes.
Chvostek sign is an involuntary twitching of the facial muscles elicited by a light tapping of the facial nerve just anterior to the exterior auditory meatus.
The neurologic signs, particularly tetany, correlate with the development of concomitant hypocalcemia, hypokalemia, or both. Myopathic potentials are found on electromyography but are also compatible with hypocalcemia or hypokalemia.
Severe hypomagnesemia may cause generalized tonic-clonic seizures, especially in children. [2]