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We have not eliminated B cell autoimmunity but I agree that it is not looking very likely. T cell autoimmunity does not exist very much as far as I can see. There is a rare genetic condition called AIR where T cells react to self but in general autoimmunity is not associated with any evidence...

Yes. Whereas most autoimmune diseases work through one or two linked antibodies lupus has a whole family of autoantibodies. The central ones are antibodies to nuclear proteins and DNA - antinuclear antibodies. The secondary ones include antibodies to platelets, to phospholipid, to lymphocytes...

Not like ME at all. There is well established pathology. There are pretty reliable blood tests. And there are very effective treatments for a lot of the problems although not all. We understand the mechanism reasonably well. There are animal models that reflect some of the steps in the chain but...

I think this is right. Researchers cannot go searching through records of people who have not volunteered.

I hate to say this but you are asking for medical advice. I could give all sorts of rules of thumb but they are all easily enough misinterpreted. The only answer is that if you are worried you should see your doctor. Forums can so easily become places where people falsely reassure each other or...

Animalmodelobabble I think.

0.2% of 60million makes 120,000 to me. That is based on diagnosed cases. No doubt there will be more undiagnosed cases but goodness knows how many.

I think it would be pretty unlikely. If a signal came up in one population another population with a Biobank would certainly be a good place to get confirmation.

It slightly surprised me at the time but I have a pretty clear recollection of it. Somebody will remember. I think it was the prevalence study done by questionnaire that Jason did a good while ago.

I forget but I think Lenny Jason was involved. There was a US study that showed that something like 80% of people who had been diagnosed with ME or CFS by a doctor did not fit criteria. I suspect that in the UK ME Biobank study the discrepancy was rathe less.

Yes, the controls are already fixed and that is why it is so crucial to recruit from a matched population.

You don't get a signal linked to being English if you control within an English population. Anything linked to being English cancels out. The study only looks at differences. You might only discover the cause of ME/CFS in England but nobody is going to complain if something is actually found -...

No, that would be a disaster because it would bring in all sorts of genetic association from friends and relations. Studies like this have to be as free as possible from any connection between subjects that might lead to bias. The key point is that any bias, however small, due to non-random...

If I remember rightly the US study that looked at ME/CFS diagnosis by physician indicated that physicians over diagnose ME/CFS by about five fold. Patients' responses to questionnaires were more reliable and produced a smaller cohort. I assume that recruitment will be done on the basis of...

From my perspective this would be an extremely bad idea. If I were reviewing the grant proposal I would not be happy with bringing in an unknown number of subjects from other countries. The problem is that genetic studies are only any use if control groups are extremely well matched for all...

This may have been covered but when asking people to show interest is there a box for saying how they came to know about the project. It is always an irritating question but it might be telling.

I have not looked at the stud details thoroughly but I wonder if there may be some selection bias in the finding of a difference between ME families and controls. These are families with multiple ME cases - which are not a representative sample of ME per se. The Fc receptor polymorphisms may...

I think the preferred estimate is 0.2%, which would be 120,000 and that figure comes from diagnosed cases, not from trawling around finding undiagnosed people. So that means that 120,000 should already have a diagnosis.

These look like phoney commercial set ups peddling pseudoscience. Do we really want our research to involve such outfits?

That is an interesting way of trying to gauge the minimum number of people who are aware of online material on ME. I say minimum in that if someone has liked a site they must exist, even if maybe some likes are from friends and relations. The interesting question raised for me by this is the...