Short answer: L-Carnitine has a half-life of about 17.4 hours. People vary, so treat these as estimates.
L-carnitine (levocarnitine) is a natural substance the body needs to carry long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria, where they are burned for energy. As an injection it is an FDA-approved prescription drug, Carnitor.
Also known as: levocarnitine, Carnitor.
Carnitor injection is 200 mg/mL, 1 g in a 5 mL single-dose vial with no preservative, labeled for intravenous use only. Carnitor also comes as tablets and an oral solution.
L-Carnitine is already a solution, so there is no mixing. The only math is turning an amount in mg into a volume. Here it is at 200 mg/mL for 100 mg.
100 mg ÷ 200 mg/mL = 0.5 mL0.5 mL × 100 = 50 units| Amount | Volume | U-100 syringe |
|---|---|---|
| 50 mg | 0.25 mL | 25 units |
| 100 mg | 0.5 mL | 50 units |
| 150 mg | 0.75 mL | 75 units |
| 200 mg | 1 mL | 100 units |
The FDA Carnitor injection label approves it for carnitine deficiency caused by inborn errors of metabolism, and for preventing and treating carnitine deficiency in people with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis. For metabolic disorders the label dose is 50 mg/kg as a slow 2 to 3 minute injection into a vein or by infusion; for dialysis it starts at 10 to 20 mg/kg into the dialysis line after each session.
The label route is intravenous only. Injection into muscle or under the skin is not a labeled route. Because the vial has no preservative, the label says to discard any unused portion. Serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been reported, mostly in people on dialysis, and seizures have been reported with both oral and intravenous levocarnitine.
The FDA Carnitor label says that after a 20 mg/kg injection into a vein, levels fell in two phases: a distribution half-life of about 0.6 hours and an apparent terminal half-life of 17.4 hours, not corrected for the carnitine the body makes itself. About 76% of the dose was excreted in urine within 24 hours. Injected into a vein there is no absorption phase, so we do not list a time to peak; by mouth, the label reports peak levels at 3.3 hours.
Numbers shown are taken from the source above. Half-life varies from person to person and with injection site.
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