Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate clinical effects of treatment with the supplementation of L-carnitine in cases with dilated cardiomyopathy. B Mode, M-Mode, and continuous Doppler echocardiograms were applied with standard techniques in totally 28 patients assessed before treatment with L-carnitine and at the 1 st , 5 th , 10 th , 30 th , and 60 th days of the treatment. The diameter of the left ventricular endsystolic and end-diastolic have decreased with L-carnitine treatment (p<0.05). While an increase was observed in the interventricular septum motion (p<0.0001); decrease was observed in the left ventricular endsystolic and end-diastolic volumes (p<0.05), and an increase was also observed in the ejection fraction, myocardial fractional shortening, and velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (p<0.05). No significant change occurred at the diastolic function of the left ventricle. As a conclusion, supplementation of L-carnitine to the conventional therapy, dilated cardiomyopathy treatment can give successful clinical result in refractory cases.

Key Words: L-Carnitine, Dilated Cardiomypopathy, Doppler Echocardiography