SERUM MAGNESIUM - CAP SURVEY - 1975

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 68  (1) , 159-161
Abstract
The results of 1975 College of American Pathologists Comprehensive Chemistry Survey of serum Mg2+ are presented. More than 1260 laboratories participated in this survey. The most commonly used method for the measurement of serum Mg2+ concentrations is atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Colorimetric dye methods (Rapid-Stat (TM) kits, the Dupont ACA and titan yellow) follow in popularity. Variation in precision was lowest with atomic absorption and highest with titan yellow methods. All 3 of the dye-binding methods demonstrated either consistently negative or consistently positive biases when compared with the weighted mean concentration. The differences between the mean concentrations obtained by the dye-binding methods and atomic absorption spectrophotometry are statistically analyzed, and several conclusions are presented. As demonstrated by this survey and at the concentrations measured, the estimation of serum Mg2+ by any of the commonly used methods, except titan yellow, is clinically appropriate.

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