[Myocardial protective effect of L-carnitine in children with hand, foot and mouth disease caused by Coxsackie A16 virus]

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at L-Carnitine.

To investigate the myocardial protective effect of L-carnitine in children with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by Coxsackie A16 virus and possible mechanisms.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 60 children were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as infants and young children, both men and women.

A total of 60 HFMD children with abnormal myocardial enzyme after Coxsackie A16 virus infection were enrolled and randomly divided into L-carnitine group and fructose-1,6-diphosphate group (fructose group), with 30 children in each group.

The two groups were given L-carnitine or fructose diphosphate in addition to antiviral and heat clearance treatment.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

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

Another 30 healthy children who underwent physical examination were enrolled as control group.

The changes in myocardial zymogram, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and apoptosis factors sFas and sFasL after treatment were compared between groups.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Carnitine, Coxsackievirus Infections, Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, Heart, Malondialdehyde, Myocardium and Superoxide Dismutase.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of L-Carnitine in 60 children.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2017 (Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics), a journal based in China.

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