Study On The Correlation Of L - Carnitine In The Treatment Of Insulin Resistance

Background: L-carnitine has been used as an adjuvant therapy in oxidative stress, blood sugar, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein(CRP), anemia etc. for several years. However, the efficacy of L-carnitine treating insulin resistance(IR) remains controversial. Homeostasis model assessment of Insulin Resistance(HOMA-IR) is widely used in the clinical evaluation of patients with IR. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis including randomized controlled trials(RCTs) to assess the effect of L-carnitine on HOMA-IR.Design: The Cochrane Library, Pub Med, and EMBASE databases were systematically searched to identify RCTs which evaluated effects of L-carnitine in HOMA-IR. We screened relevant studies according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and used Nos scoring system estimate the quality of five studies. In selected articles, we extracted the data: study design, sample size, age, L-carnitine dose and regimen, body mass index(BMI) of patients, mode of administration, study duration and study outcomes. Evaluation of heterogeneity and the process Meta analysis, use the funnel plot analysis publication bias.Results: A total of five studies were included for the meta-analysis. The result showed L-carnitine was useful in the treatment of IR(WMD-0.724, CI-0.959-0.488, P<0.0001) and heterogeneity of data was 0.0%. Evaluation at3,6,9,12 months, the P values were 0.875, 0.165, 0.031, 0.007 respectively, meanwhile all heterogeneity of data was 0.0%. In the five studies, the Nos score had high score generally, and the results in funnel plot show the datas basic symmetry means existing little publication bias. Conclusions: L-carnitine was useful in treating patients with IR. L-carnitine can treat IR more effectively with prolonging the medication time. However, more RCTs with long-term L-carnitine treatment of IR are needed to confirm the viewpoint.