PulmCrit - November 1, 2015 - By Josh Farkas
"The use of magnesium for AF has been a controversial topic for decades. Magnesium is a normal electrolyte, so it is cheap and has an excellent safety profile. Ironically, this is also magnesium's Achilles heel, because this has caused the pharmaceutical industry to have no interest in it. This leaves us with relatively sparse clinical evidence.
- Available evidence suggests that magnesium administration for atrial fibrillation may promote both rhythm and rate control.
- Magnesium may be the safest drug available for AF, when dosed and monitored appropriately.
- Magnesium is located predominantly within cells, so serum magnesium may be a poor measure of intracellular magnesium depletion. Rapid repletion of total body intracellular magnesium stores requires a magnesium infusion.
- Having a cardiac magnesium infusion protocol is very useful for torsade de pointes, where it may reduce the risk of recurrent cardiac arrest."
http://www.pulmcrit.org/2015/11/magnesium-infusions-for-atrial.html