Clinical laboratory management review : official publication of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association / CLMA
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Clin Lab Manage Rev
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Clin Lab Manage Rev · Mar 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialOutcome-based justification for implementing new point-of-care tests: there is no difference between magnesium replacement based on ionized magnesium and total magnesium as a predictor of development of arrhythmias in the postoperative cardiac surgical patient.
To determine whether introducing a new laboratory test, ionized magnesium (iMg++), would affect outcome, where outcome was defined as the rate of arrhythmias in a population of postoperative cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) patients. ⋯ The study does not support the hypothesis that magnesium repletion titrated to iMg++ reduces arrhythmia development in post-CPB patients. The lack of a difference in the amount of magnesium replacement between the two groups suggests that tMg++ level is a reasonable indicator of iMg++ level. Routine measurement of iMg++ does not, therefore, appear to have advantages over tMg++ in the postoperative management of CPB patients.