Bicycle ergometer and echocardiographic study in healthy subjects and patients with angina pectoris after administration of L-carnitine: semiautomatic computerized analysis of M-mode tracing

The discovery tha carnitine takes an active part in the transportation of long-chain acyl residues across the inner mitochondrial membrane dates back to 1958. It has been shown experimentally tha a reduction in myocardial carnitine content takes place after 15-30 min of ischemia. L-carnitine was administered orally in doses of 3 g/day for 30 days to 16 subjects with effort-induced angina and to 14 healthy subjects. A bicycle ergometer exercise test revealed a 1.5 mm (mean) depression of the ST-T segment in the angina subjects after pharmacological wash-out and a 1 mm depression in the same subjects after carnitine treatment. M-code echocardiography showed positive changes in a number of ventricular function parameters in the angina subjects and also, to a lesser extent, in the healthy controls.

Effects of physical activity and diet on lipemic risk factors for atherosclerosis in women

Serum lipoproteins were studied in active and sedentary young women. The groups were matched for age, body weight, and blood pressure. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the diet was performed. In spite of a higher intake of saturated fat and cholesterol, serum concentrations of triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the active group were not significantly different from the controls. Nevertheless, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were significantly higher in the active subjects even after covariance adjustment for nutrient intake; therefore, the HDL-C increase seems to depend on physical activity "per se" rather than on differences in diet.

[Preliminary considerations on the behavior of single plasmatic free fatty acids in obese subjects exposed to lipolytic stimulus before and after a period of caloric restriction]

The compositions of the plasma free fatty acid picture changes in relation of the metabolic situation, which is not that theoretically predictable from the adipocyte triglycerides. After a meal, this is due to the existence of a labile storage pool, which derives its features directly from those of the food lipids. In the fasting subject, when this compartment has exhausted its remains, the failure of the NEFA picture to correspond to that of the fats constituting the stabel pool may be attributable to selective release, or to preferential utilisation of each fatty acid. Analysis of the composition performed a very short time after a supramaximal lipolytic stimulus, i.e. when the release of fatty acids surpasses their peripheral removal, by confirming the differences noted under basal conditions, suggests that the first theory used to explain the phenomenon is most likely the correct one.