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.