The relationship between plasma magnesium and plasma lipids was studied in 80 cases of Type II diabetes mellitus. It was found that plasma magnesium in diabetic patients was much lower than that in normal controls. Plasma magnesium was negatively correlated with plasma cholesterol

triglyceride

and LDL-C

and positively correlated with plasma HDL-C

HDL2

and HDL-C/LDL-C

suggesting that hypom-agnesemia was closely related with disturbance in lipid metabolism in diabetes mellitus. Hypomagnesemia seemed to worsen the disturbance of lipid metabolism

and might be one of the factors causing vascular complications in diabetes mellitus