Prolonged oral L-carnitine substitution increases bicycle ergometer performance in patients with severe, ischemically induced cardiac insufficiency

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of L-Carnitine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

In order to investigate the effect of long-time oral L-carnitine substitution on physical performance, 41 patients suffering from class NYHA II or III cardiac insufficiency were recruited for a clinical study.

Bicycle ergometer tests were used to determine maximum performance, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and ST changes.

Why It Was Studied

Acute and chronic L-carnitine application exerts protective effects in a number of cardiac diseases.

Four series of tests were carried out: on day 0 (before the first substrate application), on the 60th and the 120th day (during L-carnitine or placebo application), and on the 180th day (60 days after the end of substitution).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 41 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got L-Carnitine and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on L-Carnitine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with L-Carnitine could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Four series of tests were carried out: on day 0 (before the first substrate application), on the 60th and the 120th day (during L-carnitine or placebo application), and on the 180th day (60 days after the end of substitution).

PubMed files the paper under topics including Blood Pressure, Carnitine, Energy Metabolism, Exercise, Heart Diseases, Heart Rate and Hemodynamics.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in 41 patients.

The publication is from 1999 (Cardiovascular drugs and therapy), a journal based in United States.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.