The effect of L-carnitine on plasma lipoprotein(a) levels in hypercholesterolemic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

What Was Tested

Researchers studied L-Carnitine in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In this 6-month, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial, patients were enrolled, assessed, and followed up at the Diabetic and Metabolic Diseases Center of the Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

All study patients had newly diagnosed type 2 DM that was managed through dietary restriction alone throughout the study, as well as hypercholesterolemia.

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 participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on L-Carnitine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of L-Carnitine, giving a reference point.

Patients were randomized to 1 of 2 groups.

One group received L-carnitine, one 1-g tablet BID.

The other group received a corresponding placebo.

The researchers assessed body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, postprandial plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting plasma insulin, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, apo B, and Lp(a) at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months of treatment.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Blood Glucose, Carnitine, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Hypercholesterolemia and Lipoprotein(a).

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 10 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2003 (Clinical therapeutics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page.