Still a vigilant attitude required to prevent hypomagnesemia.

In the article about the effects of proton inhibitors by Levy et al in Acta Paediatrica the possible effect on serum magnesium is only briefly mentioned1 . Still a vigilant attitude, however, is required to prevent hypomagnesemia. Accurate studies about the frequency of hypomagnesemia including the duration of proton pump inhibitors (PPI`s) in adults are available. Kieboom et al2 studied a population of 9.818 participants. A total of 724 participants used PPI`s. Thirty-six PPI users(5%) had hypomagnesemia (<or= 1.44 mEq/l). The PPI use duration was 1-61 days in 9; 62-181 days in 10 and 182-2.618 days in 17. The risk of hypomagnesemia increases with the duration of PPI as observed in most other publications.