Stroke Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Stroke, including details on treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, signs, symptoms.

Are elevated admission calcium levels associated with better outcomes after ischemic stroke?

Ovbiagele B, Liebeskind DS, Starkman S, Sanossian N, Kim D, Razinia T, Saver JL

Stroke Center and Department of Neurology, UCLA Medical Center, USA. ovibes@mednet.ucla.edu

Calcium (Ca(2+)) and magnesium (Mg(2+)) influence the molecular pathways of ischemic neuronal death. The authors evaluated the impact of admission serum Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) levels, on incident stroke severity and discharge functional outcome. After adjusting for covariates, higher admission Ca(2+) was significantly associated with lesser stroke severity and better discharge functional outcome. Admission Mg(2+) was not an independent clinical outcome prognosticator.

Published 11 July 2006 in Neurology, 67(1): 170-3.
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