International Journal of Advances in Medicine | March-April 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 2 Page 467 International Journal of Advances in Medicine Singhai A et al. Int J Adv Med. 2017 Apr;4(2):467-470 http://www.ijmedicine.com pISSN 2349-3925 | eISSN 2349-3933 Original Research Article Effect of L-carnitine supplementation on inflammatory marker of coronary artery disease Abhishek Singhai, Vishal Yadav*, Rajesh Kumar Jha INTRODUCTION Coronary artery atherosclerosis is the single largest killer of men and women in the United States. It is the principal cause of coronary artery disease (CAD), in which atherosclerotic changes are present within the walls of the coronary arteries. CAD is a progressive disease process that generally begins in childhood and manifests clinically in middle to late adulthood. Initially thought to be a chronic, slowly progressive, degenerative disease, atherosclerosis is a disorder with periods of activity and quiescence. Although a systemic disease, atherosclerosis manifests in a focal manner and affects different organ systems in different patients for reasons that remain unclear. Association between inflammation and atherosclerosis is well established. High levels of inflammatory markers lead to early development of coronary artery disease (CAD). 1 C-reactive protein (CRP) is an annular, pentameric protein found in blood plasma, whose levels rise in response to inflammation. It is an acute phase reactant, a protein made by the liver and released into the blood within a few hours after tissue injury, the start of an infection, or other cause of inflammation. Its physiological role is to bind to lysophosphatidylcholine expressed on the surface of dead or dying cells (and some types of bacteria) in order to activate the complement system via the C1Q complex. 2 The levels of CRP, interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α were commonly used as markers of inflammation to predict the risk of CAD. Normal concentration OF CRP in healthy Department of Medicine, Sri Aurobindo Medical College & PGI, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India Received: 21 January 2017 Revised: 05 February 2017 Accepted: 22 February 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Vishal Yadav, E-mail: doctorvishalyadav@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: L-carnitine (LC) might have the potential to control inflammation by reduction of major inflammatory cytokines, including CRP. Therefore, this study was planned to investigate the effect of LC supplementation on CRP levels in CAD patients. Methods: 50 subjects comprised placebo group who received standard line of treatment for coronary artery disease while other 50 subjects comprised LC group who received 1000 mg of LC daily apart from standard treatment for 12 weeks. CRP levels were measured at baseline and again after 12 weeks of treatment in all subjects. Results: The participants in the LC group had significantly lower levels of CRP after 12 weeks of supplementation with LC, than at baseline (p<0.01). Conclusions: We suggest that LC supplementation, due to its antioxidant effects, have potential utility to reduce inflammation in CAD. Keywords: CRP, Coronary artery disease, Inflammation, L-carnitine DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3933.ijam20171043