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Evaluation of the effect of intravenous l-carnitine on quality of life in chronic hemodialysis patients
Plain-language guide to PMID 11140808 (2000): double-blind randomized controlled trial study of L-Carnitine.
Key Facts
- PMID
- 11140808
- Journal
- Clinical nephrology
- Year
- 2000
- Study type
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Authors
- Semeniuk J et al. (5 authors)
What This Study Did, in Plain Language
What Was Tested
This randomized controlled trial paper looks at L-Carnitine.
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of l-carnitine on quality of life (QOL) in chronic hemodialysis patients.
The Kidney Dialysis Questionnaire was the assessment tool used to evaluate QOL.
Who Took Part
PubMed indexes the participants as older adults, both men and women.
Inclusion criteria were patients who were older than 18 years, had been on dialysis for a minimum of one year, and had at least two of the following symptoms: intradialytic hypotension, muscle cramping, lack of energy, muscle weakness or myopathy, cardiomyopathy, or lack of responsiveness to erythropoietin (EPO).
Patients were excluded if they were mentally incompetent to complete a QOL questionnaire.
How the Study Was Run
The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.
Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got L-Carnitine and who got the comparison, which limits bias.
Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received L-Carnitine.
A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the L-Carnitine group a baseline to be compared against.
Each person switched between L-Carnitine and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.
This trial used a randomized, prospective, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover design.
What Was Measured
PubMed files the paper under topics including Carnitine, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Quality of Life, Renal Dialysis, Surveys and Questionnaires and Treatment Failure.
What This Means in Plain Language
The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine.
Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.
The publication is from 2000 (Clinical nephrology), a journal based in Germany.
More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.
Our Notes on the Compound
L-Carnitine: An amino acid derivative that carries fatty acids into mitochondria for energy production.
Related Pages
Source: PubMed record. This explanation is written by PeptideWhiz from the public record. For research and education only. Not medical advice; no dosing information is given.