Efficacy of L-carnitine on nonalcoholic fatty liver

Objective To investigate the effects and safety of L-carnitine(LC) in treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD).Methods Eighty two patients with NAFLD were randomized into two groups.Fifty cases(LC group) were given 1 g Lcarnitine orally three times a day,and 32 cases(control group) were given 77 mg silibinin orally three times a day.The course of the treatment was three months with going on diet and temperance.Before and after the treatment,clinical symptoms,levels of serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT),aspartate aminotransferase(AST),gamma glutamyl transferase(GGT),triglyceride(TG),total cholesterol(TC) and hepatic ultrasonography were recorded respectively.Results There was no significant difference in patients' weight in two groups before and after treatment(P0.05).The rate of normalization in the LC group was significantly higher than that in the control group(P0.05),including clinical symptoms(92.24% vs 65.21%),levels of serum ALT(92.00% vs 64.28%),AST(93.33% vs 69.23%),GGT(89.13% vs 65.21%),TG(87.80% vs 61.90%) and TC(88.24% vs 61.11%).The hepatic ultrasonography examination shows that the rate of improvement in LC group was significantly higher than that in the control group(84.00% vs 35.72%,P0.05),and the rate of efficacy in LC group was significantly higher than that in the control group(84% vs 35.72%)(P0.05).There were no severe adverse effects in all patients.Conclusion L-carnitine can effectively improve clinical symptoms,liver function and serum triglyceride and cholesterol,and ameliorate the imagination of hepatic ultrasonography of patients with NAFLD.It is a choice for the patients with NAFLD.