Potential Effect of L-Carnitine on the Prevention of Myocardial Injury after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

BACKGROUND L-carnitine has been demonstrated to confer cardiac protection against ischemia reperfusion injury in animals. This study evaluates the effects of L-carnitine administration on cardiac biomarkers after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. METHODS One hundred thirty-four patients undergoing elective CABG surgery, without a history of myocardial ischemia or previous L-carnitine treatment, were enrolled and randomly assigned to an L-carnitine group ([n = 67], 3000 mg/d, started 2 days preoperatively and continued for 2 days after surgery) or a control group (n = 67). CK-MB (creatine kinase, muscle-brain subunits) and troponin T (TnT) levels were assessed in all the patients before surgery as baseline levels and at 8 and 24 hours postoperatively. RESULTS Our study included 134 patients (99 [73.8%] males) at a mean ± SD age of 59.94 ± 8.61 years who were candidates for CABG and randomized them into control or L-carnitine groups. The baseline demographic characteristics, including age (60.01 ± 9.23 in the L-carnitine group vs. 59.88 ± 7.98 in the control group) and sex (54 [80.6%] in the L-carnitine group vs. 45 [67.2%] in the control group) did not show any significant differences (p value=0.93 and 0.08, respectively). Patients in the L-carnitine group had lower levels of CK-MB (mean ± SD, 25.06 ± 20.29 in the L-carnitine group vs. 24.26 ± 14.61 in the control group), but the difference was not significant (p value = 0.28). TnT levels also showed no significant differences between the two groups (399.50 ± 378.91 in the L-carnitine group vs. 391.48 ± 222.02 in the control group; p value = 0.34). CONCLUSION In this population of intermediate- to high-risk patients undergoing CABG surgery, L-carnitine did not reduce CK-MB and TnT levels.