BACK TO CONTENTS   |    PDF   |    PREVIOUS   |    NEXT

Title

Data from a randomized and controlled trial of L-Carnitine prescription for the treatment for Non-alcoholicFatty liver disease

 

Authors

Mohamad Hosein Somi1, Ebrahim Fatahi1, Jafar Panahi2, Mohamad Reza Havasian2 & Arezo judaki3*

 

Affiliation

1Department of Gastroenterology, Emam Reza Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz/Iran;2Student Research of Committee, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam/Iran; 3Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam/Iran

 

Email

arezo.judaki@yahoo.com; *Corresponding author

 

Article Type

Hypothesis

 

Date

Received June 22, 2014; Revised July 06, 2014; Accepted July 07, 2014; Published August 30, 2014

 

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) consists of a range of complication. The disease describes clinical , para clinical and pathological conditions from simple steatosis in non-alcoholic steato hepatitis (NASH) to fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepato cellular carcinoma. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the grade of fatty liver and Liver Function Test in NAFLD patients. We collected samples and data from 80 patients referred to gastrointestinal clinic of Emam Reza hospital with sonography diagnosed NAFLD and were evaluated in two groups in a randomized clinical trial. The effects of L-Carnitine (500 mg) prescription twice a day on liver enzymes and echogenicity changes in case group was documented and compared with the control group. The mean age of the patients was 40.7±8 in the age range of 25 to 62 years old with 66 (82.5%) male and 14 (17.5%) female patients. Data show that fatty liver changes were not significantly different in the two groups (P=0.23). It is observed that the ALT was the only enzyme with significant changes (P=0.01) after a 24-week interval. It is also noted that the difference in fatty liver sonographic grading was also significant in the two groups (P=0.0001). Thus, proper therapeutic protocols can be adopted beside diet and weight loss to control the disease trend in consideration to the significant changes observed both in enzymatic levels and sonographic grading between the two groups of patients with NAFLD.

 

Keywords

L-carnitine, Liver Function, NAFLD.

 

Citation

Somi et al. Bioinformation 10(9): 575-579 (2014)
 

Edited by

P Kangueane

 

ISSN

0973-2063

 

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

 

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.