Role of L-Carnitine supplementation on rate of weight gain and biomarkers of Environmental Enteric Dysfunction in children with severe acute malnutrition: A protocol for a double-blinded randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied L-Carnitine in this clinical study publication.

To investigate the role of L-carnitine supplementation on the rate of weight gain, duration of hospital stays, and EED biomarkers among children with severe acute malnutrition.

Why It Was Studied

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) are highly prevalent among children residing in resource-limited countries like Bangladesh.

Date of registration: October 19, 2021.

Who Took Part

The study group was 15 children.

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

This study is a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial aiming to enroll diarrheal children with SAM between 9-24 months of both sexes attending the nutritional rehabilitation unit (NRU) of Dhaka Hospital of icddr,b.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as 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 children 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.

The primary outcome is the rate of weight gain, and the secondary outcomes include duration of hospital stay and EED biomarkers.

Outcomes are assessed at baseline and 15 days of post-intervention.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Bangladesh, Biomarkers, Carnitine, Dietary Supplements, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Severe Acute Malnutrition and Weight Gain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in 15 children.

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 publication is from 2022 (PloS one), a journal based in United States.

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