ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1551495
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology: 2024View all 15 articles
The use of Magnesium Sulfate can reduce the mortality risk of cirrhosis patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
Boxian Chen
Yuping YangMouji LiangZhe Huang*
Shicai Ye*Yujie HuangRuyin YeLiping Zhan
Yanqi KouJieming ZhengQing ZhangHaoyuan Huang- Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Magnesium deficiency is common in patients with cirrhosis, but there is a lack of real-world evidence to support the effect of magnesium supplementation on prognosis. Objective: To explore whether magnesium sulfate supplementation is beneficial for patients with cirrhosis using data from the MIMIC-IV database. Methods: Patients with cirrhosis were divided into magnesium sulfate group and non-magnesium sulfate group according to medication use during hospitalization after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). In-hospital all-cause mortality was the primary outcome, and 180-day all-cause mortality was the secondary outcome. Propensity score matching (PSM) method, univariate and multivariate regression analysis were used to evaluate the effect of magnesium sulfate on prognosis, and Kaplan-Meier curves, subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed to clarify the stability of the results. Results: The prematched cohort included 3312 patients, while the propensity score matched cohort included 1308 patients. In the PSM analysis, the in-hospital all-cause mortality in the magnesium sulfate group was 22.0% (144/654), and that in the non-use group was 31.0% (203/654). Magnesium sulfate use was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-0.69; P < 0.001) and reduced all-cause mortality at 180 days after ICU admission (hazard ratio [HR], 0.61; 95% CI, 0.51-0.72; P < 0.001). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these results. Conclusions: Magnesium sulfate use is associated with reduced in-hospital and 180-day all-cause mortality in ICU patients with cirrhosis, which needs to be verified in prospective studies.
Keywords: Liver Cirrhosis, Magnesium Sulfate, MIMIC-IV, all-cause mortality, Propensity score matching
Received: 25 Dec 2024; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Yang, Liang, Huang, Ye, Huang, Ye, Zhan, Kou, Zheng, Zhang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhe Huang, 396018618@qq.com
Shicai Ye, yeshicai@gdmu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.