Subjects
renal, hepatic, and inflammatory disorders, pemphigus disease, pemphigus
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, PEMPHIGUS
Forty‐four pemphigus patients aged from 30 to 65 years under corticosteroid therapy were chosen from Razi dermatology hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran to participate in the study. The intervention was continued for 8 weeks. To compute the sample size, we applied a parallel design randomized controlled trial formula based on 0.05 for type one (α) error and 0.20 for type two error (β). The inclusion criteria were: history of pemphigus disease at least for 1 year; using corticosteroid alone or with methotrexate, azathioprine, or mycophenolate mofetil; not having cardiovascular disease, renal, hepatic, and inflammatory disorders; not taking any antioxidant supplements within the past 3 months before the intervention; not taking drugs with obvious interaction with carnitine or influence its metabolism, that is, theophylline or valproate; BMI < 35; being a non‐smoker. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Iran) and registered the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT code: IRCT2015062322769N4). All subjects were made aware of the content of the study written informed consent which was obtained from each participating subject.