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it was, but it seems to be very accurate. In other words, it’s not clear that this somatic symptoms are particularly helpful in diagnosing depression, while they drag in lots of non-depressed people with chronic illnesses. ultimately, you need a clinician to diagnose depression, and I’m not...

I did look into this at one point. Try the PHQ-2 https://www.hiv.uw.edu/page/mental-health-screening/phq-2 This drops all the somatic symptoms, and instead focuses on two simple qualities: – feeling low. – lack of pleasure There is some published research that compares the PHQ-two with the...

Thanks for such a helpful explanation. I agree that the concern is they use a black box method. I think the idea with decodeme is to take a sample, randomly split it into two cohorts, and then see if they can replicate the results from the test cohort in the replication one. I think that...

Because it’s a combinatorial approach, rather than the traditional GWAS, single – SNP approach, yes, this is a meaningful cohort. I haven’t read the paper and I’m not sure how clear cut the findings are. I’d like to see the results replicated/validated in independent cohorts. They say they’re...

@chillier thanks for the very helpful analysis and explanation (and for confirming that it is the same salt concentration as used in Ron Davis' experiment). It looks interesting, but they don’t replicate the nanoneedle findings. However, this experiment seems to have very significant...

My mistake - I meant shrink (I'm going to blame my migraine for that one!) Except OMF are in the happy situation of having lots of funds. They say they are applying for NIH funds as Esfandyarpour's condition to work on the project. The money will go to him. So I don't see the benefit to OMF...

One more question to address: why hasn't OMF pursued impedance testing? 1. The nanoneedle is cutting edge and proprietary technology, and unfortunately its inventor has no particular interest in ME. He left Stanford, and is apparently now leads his own research group at University of California...

Are you saying the cells were already dead at the start of the experiment? Or that they might have been killed by hyperosmotic stress without first enlarging (@chillier or @Creekside said a volume change is normal in cells that are stressed by hyperosmotic conditions)? I assume the authors...

I am still confused. Are these molecules in the plasma of patients or controls, or molecules introduced by the experimental process as an artefact? If the former, that's still interesting biologically. If an artefact that could account for the case/control differences, I'm not sure how that...

There are a couple of reasons there might be better explanations. 1. I'm not sure how much research was actually done after the work for this research. Throughout, the researchers were hampered by the slow speed of their setup, and manufacturing issues. Hence the work to develop a better system...

If the data is that good, will they be publishing it? I guess the lack of specificity is not necessarily what the ME community wants to hear, but been able to distinguish between sick and healthy. It would be quite something.

Interesting. Can you say any more - e.g. when is the info from and based on how many subjects? Yes, the nanoneedle was developed to be used with a range of sensors that allowed them to detect very specific molecules. The use here seems to have been off-piste. So it's plausible that this level...

Missed that- what kind of difference though? This is an important point. It looks like a mixed picture - but note that 5/5 seem to have been processed in sync, so I don't think that could explain the result (all the controls look much the same, however the samples were collected). Sample...

Thanks for all the comments, though I'm afraid the discussions of the nanoneedle itself are over my head. My working assumption is that whatever changes the nanoneedle detected, they are likely to be significant given the total separation between cases and controls. Plus, I think this is the...

Regardless of any development of the nanoneedle, I think it might be worth following up on the salt stress test, which could potentially reveal a great deal about ME/CFS. I would love comments from people on this thread who know a great deal more about the nanoneedle and this study than I do...

My post on this here generated some interest, so I thought it was worth setting up a separate thread. Please do join in if you are interested too. The nanoneedle salt stress test – too good a clue to leave abandoned on the lab bench?

Background information The original motivation for using the salt stress test was to as the cellular equivalent of provoking PEM. Something that would expose differences in ME cells that are missed under normal conditions. Or a cellular equivalent proxy of the two-day exercise test (that test is...

What can the salt stress test tell us about the biology of ME? The nanoneedle test itself has stalled, and only its inventor seems capable of taking it forward. However, perhaps more valuable than the nanoneedle diagnostic test are the biological changes induced by the salt stress test - and...

That's a big caveat, hence the need for disease controls. But how do we know if it is a disease marker rather than an inactivity marker? I'm sure that's what BPS sceptics would argue. Regardless of biomarker status, any biomolecule associated firmly with the illness would be helpful. But BP...

I agree that this is an unsubstantiated claim. More generally, why do we need a biomarker for severity? Severity. is its own thing. And the fact that fibronectin 1 levels can’t distinguish mild and moderate cases of ME from healthy controls strongly indicates the molecule isn’t playing a major...