Effects of intravenously administered L-acetylcarnitine on somatosensory-evoked potentials. Studies of healthy and diseased volunteers with focal cerebral lesions

• Published in: European neurology Vol. 24; no. 4; p. 262
• Main Authors: Rossini, P M, Di Stefano, E, Febbo, A, Gambi, D, Calvani, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 1985
• Subjects: Acetylcarnitine - therapeutic use; Adult; Aged; Brain Neoplasms - drug therapy; Brain Neoplasms - physiopathology; Carnitine - analogs & derivatives; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cerebrovascular Disorders - drug therapy; Cerebrovascular Disorders - physiopathology; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; Female; Humans; Male; Median Nerve - physiopathology; Middle Aged; Neural Pathways - physiopathology; Sensation - physiology; Thalamus - physiopathology
• ISSN: 0014-3022; 1421-9913
• DOI: 10.1159/000115805

The acute effects of intravenously administered L-acetylcarnitine (L-AC) were evaluated in 5 healthy and 20 diseased volunteers (17 vascular, 3 tumoral cerebral lesions). Short-latency scalp somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) to simultaneous median, and separate unilateral peroneal nerve stimulation were carried out before and after L-AC administration (at 10-, 30- and 60-min intervals). L-AC did not influence peak and interpeak latencies; however, in a percentage of healthy and diseased volunteers a clear-cut amplitude increase was evident affecting all those peaks generated between the thalamus and the cortex. While in normal and tumoral volunteers the voltage increase was bilaterally balanced, the amplitude increments were more evident on the 'affected' hemisphere in vascular patients, partially reversing the abnormal amplitude ratios between homologous peaks on 'healthy' and 'affected' hemispheres. In no case were transient clinical changes, either of an objective or subjective nature, associated with SEP amplitude changes; these were still present at the 60th minute, having reached their nadir at the 30th minute in 'responders'.