John Mac
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Abstract
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating disease presenting with extreme fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and other symptoms.
In the absence of a diagnostic biomarker, ME/CFS is diagnosed clinically, although laboratory tests are routinely used to exclude alternative diagnoses.
In this analytical cross-sectional study, we aimed to explore potential haematological and biochemical markers for ME/CFS, and disease severity.
We reviewed laboratory test results from 272 people with ME/CFS and 136 healthy controls participating in the UK ME/CFS Biobank (UKMEB).
After corrections for multiple comparisons, most results were within the normal range, but people with severe ME/CFS presented with lower median values (p< 0.001) of serum creatine kinase (CK; median = 54 U/L), compared to healthy controls (HCs; median = 101.5 U/L) and non-severe ME/CFS (median = 84 U/L).
The differences in CK concentrations persisted after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, muscle mass, disease duration, and activity levels (odds ratio (OR) for being a severe case = 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.02–0.15) compared to controls, and OR = 0.16 (95% CI = 0.07–0.40), compared to mild cases).
This is the first report that serum CK concentrations are markedly reduced in severe ME/CFS, and these results suggest that serum CK merits further investigation as a biomarker for severe ME/CFS.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/9/2/41
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