Tehran University of Medical Sciences The Research in Heart Yield and Translational Medicine (RHYTHM) 3115-7270 10 2 2015 10 13 74 79 EN Farzaneh Dastan School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Azita Hajhossein Talasaz School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mojtaba Mojtahedzadeh School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Abbasali Karimi Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Abbas Salehiomran Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Payvand Bina Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Arash Jalali Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Zahra Aghaie School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2015 10 13 2015 10 13 Background: L-carnitine has been demonstrated to confer cardiac protection against ischemia reperfusion injury in animals. This study evaluates the effects of L-carnitine administration on cardiac biomarkers after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Methods: One hundred thirty-four patients undergoing elective CABG surgery, without a history of myocardial ischemia or previous L-carnitine treatment, were enrolled and randomly assigned to an L-carnitine group ([n = 67], 3000 mg/d, started 2 days preoperatively and continued for 2 days after surgery) or a control group (n = 67). CK-MB (creatine kinase, muscle- brain subunits) and troponin T (TnT) levels were assessed in all the patients before surgery as baseline levels and at 8 and 24 hours postoperatively. Results: Our study included 134 patients (99 [73.8%] males) at a mean ± SD age of 59.94 ± 8.61 years who were candidates for CABG and randomized them into control or L-carnitine groups. The baseline demographic characteristics, including age (60.01 ± 9.23 in the L-carnitine group vs. 59.88 ± 7.98 in the control group) and sex (54 [80.6%] in the L-carnitine group vs. 45 [67.2%] in the control group) did not show any significant differences (p value=0.93 and 0.08, respectively). Patients in the L-carnitine group had lower levels of CK-MB (mean ± SD, 25.06 ± 20.29 in the L-carnitine group vs. 24.26 ± 14.61 in the control group), but the difference was not significant (p value = 0.28). TnT levels also showed no significant differences between the two groups (399.50 ± 378.91 in the L-carnitine group vs. 391.48 ± 222.02 in the control group; p value = 0.34). Conclusion: In this population of intermediate- to high-risk patients undergoing CABG surgery, L-carnitine did not reduce CK-MB and TnT levels. https://rhythm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jthc/article/view/370 https://rhythm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jthc/article/download/370/363