L-carnitine in cardiogenic shock therapy: pharmacodynamic aspects and clinical data.

Following our previous work on biochemical and clinical aspects of cardiogenic shock, we carried out an open study on 27 patients hospitalized in shock condition and investigated for the entire period of permanence in intensive care units (ICU). The subjects were treated with high doses of L-carnitine following previous results on the use of this molecule in conditions of oxidative damage due to acute cellular hypoxia. When compared with the data reported in the literature, the results obtained in this study show a surprisingly positive trend for the carnitine-treated patients in terms of survival rate to the cardiogenic shock. This finding and statistical analysis of the clinical parameters confirm the suggestion that L-carnitine could be credited with a new and interesting role in the therapy of cardiogenic shock.