Protective Effects of L-Carnitine Against Delayed Graft Function in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Pilot, Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied L-Carnitine in the context of kidney protection (ckd, diabetic kidney, lupus kidney) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury during transplantation is a major cause of DGF.

Who Took Part

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

This study is a pilot, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that was conducted on kidney transplantation patients in kidney transplant ward of Imam Khomeini hospital complex affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Patients older than 14 years old undergoing their first kidney transplantation from a deceased donor were evaluated for eligibility to take part in this study.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the L-Carnitine group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind L-Carnitine study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger L-Carnitine study would be practical.

Fifty-six patients were randomly assigned to L-carnitine or placebo groups.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Biomarkers, Body Mass Index, Carnitine, Delayed Graft Function, Dietary Supplements, Graft Rejection and Graft Survival.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in people with kidney protection (ckd, diabetic kidney, lupus kidney).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2017 (Journal of renal nutrition : the official journal of the Council on Renal Nutrition of the National Kidney Foundation), a journal based in United States.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, Kidney protection (CKD, diabetic kidney, lupus kidney) research.