Evaluation of four clinical laboratory parameters for the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis (2018) De Meirleir et al

[hixxy]

J Transl Med. 2018 Nov 21;16(1):322. doi: 10.1186/s12967-018-1696-z.

Evaluation of four clinical laboratory parameters for the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis.

De Meirleir KL, Mijatovic T, Subramanian K, Schlauch KA, Lombardi VC.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a complex and debilitating disease that often initially presents with flu-like symptoms, accompanied by incapacitating fatigue. Currently, there are no objective biomarkers or laboratory tests that can be used to unequivocally diagnosis ME; therefore, a diagnosis is made when a patient meets series of a costly and subjective inclusion and exclusion criteria. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the utility of four clinical parameters in diagnosing ME.

METHODS:
In the present study, we utilized logistic regression and classification and regression tree analysis to conduct a retrospective investigation of four clinical laboratory in 140 ME cases and 140 healthy controls.

RESULTS:
Correlations between the covariates ranged between [- 0.26, 0.61]. The best model included the serum levels of the soluble form of CD14 (sCD14), serum levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and serum levels of interleukin 8, with coefficients 0.002, 0.249, and 0.005, respectively, and p-values of 3 × 10-7, 1 × 10-5, and 3 × 10-3, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings show that these parameters may help physicians in their diagnosis of ME and may additionally shed light on the pathophysiology of this disease.

KEYWORDS:
Chronic fatigue; Diagnostic; IL-8, PGE2; ME/CFS; sCD14, CD57

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30463572
https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12967-018-1696-z

 

[adambeyoncelowe]

Anybody had time to look at this yet?

 

[unicorn7]

I hope they will test more people and people with other diseases. I think a biomarker eventually will be different tests taken together to form a diagnosis, so this seems like a good start. We will just have to see if these parameters are really specific for ME.

I had all these levels tested and in my case it's correct.

 

[Helen]

I had all these levels tested and in my case it's correct.

My test results (sCD14, PGE and Interleukin 8) were abnormal too.

 

[alex3619]

I have been expecting a finding of elevated PGE2 for two and a half decades. Why does it take so long? (rhetorical question)

It seemed to me, based on early work by Dr Andriya Martinovic, plus work by Martin L Pall and others, that this was a fully expected consequence. I was trying various treatments based on this idea through most of the 90s.

By itself PGE2 shows potential pathophysiology, its not diagnostic. I don't want to say anything about the other three substances yet. We will have to see how further research progresses before we know if this is diagnostically useful.