Serum magnesium: a clinical biomarker for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy?

introduction: epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological disorder in the world and has a higher mortality rate than would be expected in a healthy population. one of the most related category of death is sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (sudep). many risk factors have been related to sudep, but the mechanisms involved in its genesis is still unknown. objective: here we describe one case of a patient with low serum magnesium levels that suffered of sudep. conclusion: we discuss a possible cause-effect relation, suggesting that magnesium may be, in some cases, a biomarker of sudep.