Table 5.
Emergency room visit, total hospital admissions, blood eosinophils, and serum IgE in patient subgroups before and after carnitine supplementation and the placebo group.
| Subgroup A (with L-Carnitine) (n = 25) |
Subgroup B (Placebo) (n = 25) |
t | P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency room visit | bef. | 3.1 ± 1.01 | 3.4 ± 1.0 | 1.2 | >0.05 |
| aft | 1.5 ± 0.6 | 2.6 ± 0.9 | 4.68 | <0.001* | |
|
| |||||
| Total Hospital admissions | bef. | 1.5 ± 0.6 | 1.8 ± 0.7 | 1.9 | >0.05 |
| aft | 0.44 ± 0.5 | 1.8 ± 0.6 | 7.5 | <0.001* | |
|
| |||||
| Oral steroid | bef. | 2.16 ± 0.74 | 2.12 ± 0.72 | 0.21 | >0.05 |
| aft | 1.2 ± 0.5 | 1.6 ± 0.5 | 2.8 | <0.01* | |
|
| |||||
| Serum IgE (kU/L) | bef. | 328 ± 89 | 322 ± 114 | 0.21 | >0.05 |
| aft | 253 ± 62 | 290 ± 106 | 1.6 | >0.05 | |
|
| |||||
| Blood eosinophils (%) | bef. | 5.8 ± 2.1 | 6.04 ± 2.1 | 0.38 | >0.05 |
| aft | 3.1 ± 0.8 | 4.4 ± 1.2 | 4.2 | <0.001* | |
(*) P < 0.05 is significant There were significant decreases in the frequency of emergency room visit, total hospital admissions, and the intake of oral steroids between L-Carnitine-supplemented children compared to placebo group during the study period. The blood eosinophils % decreased significantly after treatment with L-Carnitine in asthmatic group. It was significantly lower in L-Carnitine treatment group than in placebo group. Serum Ig E showed no significant difference in treatment and placebo group (both before and after treatment).