Sibutramine and L-carnitine compared to sibutramine alone on insulin resistance in diabetic patients

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at L-Carnitine in the context of insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes.

To evaluate the effects of one year of treatment with sibutramine plus L-carnitine compared to sibutramine on body weight, glycemic control, and insulin resistance state in type 2 diabetic patients.

Who Took Part

The study group was 2 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The researchers evaluated at baseline, and after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months these parameters: body weight, body mass index (BMI), glycated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), post-prandial plasma glucose (PPG), fasting plasma insulin (FPI), homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (Tg), retinol binding protein-4 (RBP-4), resistin, visfatin, high sensitivity-C reactive protein (Hs-CRP).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and double-blind 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 patients and researchers unaware of who received L-Carnitine.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Glucose, Carnitine, Cyclobutanes, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exercise and Insulin Resistance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of L-Carnitine in 2 patients in people with insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2010 (Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan)), a journal based in Japan.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, Insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes research.