IMR Press / RCM / Volume 15 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.3909/ricm0710

Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine (RCM) is published by IMR Press from Volume 19 Issue 1 (2018). Previous articles were published by another publisher in Open Access under a CC-BY (or CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with MedReviews, LLC.

Open Access Review
L-carnitine for the Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction
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1 Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, MO
3 Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan
4 NutriGuard Research, Inc, Encinitas, CA
5 John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, the University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
6 Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA
7 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ioannina Medical School, Ioannina, Greece
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2014, 15(1), 52–62; https://doi.org/10.3909/ricm0710
Published: 30 March 2014
Abstract
Although the therapeutic strategies available for treating acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have evolved dramatically in recent decades, coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death in our society, and the rates of recurrent myocardial infarction and mortality are still unacceptably high. Therefore, exploration of alternative therapeutic strategies for AMI is of utmost importance. One such strategy is to target metabolic pathways via L-carnitine supplementation. L-carnitine is a physiologically essential metabolic cofactor that has been shown to provide a plethora of benefits when administered after AMI. L-carnitine has been shown to lessen infarct size, to reduce ventricular arrhythmias, left ventricular dilation, and heart failure incidence, as well as improve survival. These benefits may, in part, be related to its ability to boost glucose oxidation in is chemic tissues, while moderating increases in fatty acyl-coenzyme A levels that can impair mitochondrial efficiency and promote oxidative stress and inflammation. This article summarizes the evidence pertinent to the therapeutic use of L-carnitine for AMI.
Keywords
L-carnitine
Acute myocardial infarction
Ischemia
Mitochondria
Fatty acids
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