The effect of l-carnitine supplementation on serum levels of omentin-1, visfatin and SFRP5 and glycemic indices in patients with pemphigus vulgaris: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of L-Carnitine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of l-carnitine (LC) on secreted frizzled-related protein-5 (SFRP5), omentin, visfatin, and glycemic indices in PV patients under corticosteroid treatment.

Why It Was Studied

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a chronic autoimmune disorder with potentially fatal outcomes.

Who Took Part

The study group was 52 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Serum levels of SFRP5, omentin, visfatin, and also glycemic indices were evaluated at the baseline and end of the study.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on L-Carnitine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the L-Carnitine group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a chronic autoimmune disorder with potentially fatal outcomes.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Blood Glucose, Carnitine, Cytokines, Dietary Supplements, GPI-Linked Proteins and Health Status Indicators.

Author keywords: adipokines, glycemic index and pemphigus vulgaris.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in 52 patients.

The publication is from 2020 (Phytotherapy research : PTR), a journal based in England.

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