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Hand grip strength as a clinical biomarker for ME/CFS, 2018, Nacul et al

Discussion in 'ME/CFS research' started by Suffolkres, Nov 11, 2018.

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  1. Suffolkres

    Suffolkres Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    1,522
    Source: Frontiers in Neurology
    Preprint
    Date: November 5, 2018
    URL:
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00992/abstract

    Hand grip strength as a clinical biomarker for ME/CFS and disease
    severity
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Luis C. Nacul(*), Kathleen Mudie, Caroline Kingdon(*), Taane G.
    Clark, Eliana M. Lacerda
    - London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
    * Correspondence: Dr. Luis C. Nacul <luis.nacul@lshtm.ac.uk>
    Mrs. Caroline Kingdon <caroline.kingdon@lshtm.ac.uk>
     
    Suffolkres, Nov 11, 2018
    #1
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  2. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    26,850
    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    Methods
    We compared [hand grip strength] HGS measurements from participants in the UK ME/CFS Biobank, with groups consisting of people with ME/CFS of differing severity (n=272), healthy (n=136), multiple sclerosis (n=76) controls, and others with chronic fatigue not meeting the diagnosis of ME/CFS (n=37). We correlated the maximum and minimum of, and differences between, 3 repeated HGS measurements with parameters of disease severity, including fatigue and pain analog scales, and physical and mental component summaries from the SF-36v2TM questionnaire across recruitment groups.

    Results
    HGS indicators were associated with having ME/CFS, with magnitudes of association stronger in severely affected than in mild/moderately affected patients. Compared with healthy controls, being severely affected was associated with a reduction in minimum HGS of 15.3kg (95%CI 19.3-11.3; p<0.001), while being mild/moderately affected was associated with a 10.5kg (95%CI 13.2-7.8; p<0.001) reduction. The association persisted after adjusting for age, sex and body mass index. ME/CFS cases also showed lower values of maximum HGS and significant drops in values from the first to second and third trials, compared to other study groups. There were significant correlations between HGS indicators and clinical parameters of disease severity, including fatigue analog scale (Spearman’s Rho= -0.40, p<0.001), pain analog scale (Rho=-0.38, p<0.001), and physical component summary (Rho=0.42, p<0.001).

    Discussion
    HGS is markedly reduced in ME/CFS, particularly in patients with more severe disease, and may indicate muscle and fatigue related symptoms. HGS is a potential diagnostic tool in ME/CFS, and could also be used to enhance patient phenotyping and as an outcome measure following interventions.
     
    Hutan, Nov 11, 2018
    #2
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  3. Alvin

    Alvin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    3,309
    Mine has gone down with disease severity
     
    Alvin, Nov 11, 2018
    #3
    chelby, MSEsperanza, Luther Blissett and 3 others like this.
  4. Bertil

    Bertil Established Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
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    do you think I could use this as an additional test to rule in or out ME?
     
    Bertil, Nov 11, 2018
    #4
    Luther Blissett likes this.
  5. Hoopoe

    Hoopoe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    5,252
    Merged thread

    Full article is not yet available.

    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00992/abstract
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 12, 2018
    Hoopoe, Nov 12, 2018
    #5
    Luther Blissett, WillowJ, MEMarge and 7 others like this.
  6. Lisa108

    Lisa108 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Location:
    Germany
    Interesting. They compared 3 repeated hand grip strength measurements. Would like to see if pwME show normal strength at hand grip #1 and then declining over the repetitions... :thumbup::thumbsup::thumbsdown:
     
    Lisa108, Nov 12, 2018
    #6
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  7. Hoopoe

    Hoopoe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    ME/CFS cases also showed lower values of maximum HGS and significant drops in values from the first to second and third trials, compared to other study groups.
     
    Hoopoe, Nov 12, 2018
    #7
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  8. Lisa108

    Lisa108 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Location:
    Germany
    [my bold]

    It's all in the abstract :oops::facepalm::bag:
     
    Lisa108, Nov 12, 2018
    #8
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  9. Philipp

    Philipp Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    If this turns out to be reliable it should be really easy to do and not trigger significant worsening afterwards... I'd be interested to see how grip strength varies over months on different days and whether this can be tied to the muscles themselves or something neurological. We usually only think about how hard repeating aerobic performances is, but anecdotally I do remember that I always had a significant drop-off in repetitions for strength exercises after the first set after the first ~3 years. Seems like a really obvious and good idea to explore this area.

    Does anybody know how HGS is in e.g. MS or other diseases with significant neurological fatigue?
     
    Philipp, Nov 12, 2018
    #9
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  10. Sasha

    Sasha Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    3,780
    Location:
    UK
    I wonder how they can show that people exert maximum force on each attempt? In CPET tests, I think they can show maximum effort by means of a ratio of gases exhaled, I think (RER? I can't remember what it stands for - maybe 'respiratory exchange ratio').

    Otherwise, I can see this new test being dismissed as reflecting patients' behaviour.

    I haven't read the paper, though (since it's not available yet!).
     
    Sasha, Nov 12, 2018
    #10
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  11. Alvin

    Alvin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    3,309
    For many years what i found was my strength was about the same. Less then a normal person and i could not build muscle but i could function till PEM. Over time how much i could do till i hit PEM became less and less. But as i became mostly homebound my strength started declining rather quickly as well as how much i could do till PEM diminished just as quickly. And simultaneously my cognitive functioning also started dropping rapidly and my non 24 sped up drastically. :(
    I am only able to post due to the many supplements i am taking for cognitive function otherwise i'd almost be a vegetable cognitively :dead:
     
    Alvin, Nov 12, 2018
    #11
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  12. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    52,225
    Location:
    UK
    The thing I noticed from the start along with my legs losing power quickly (rapid muscle fatiguability) was that I couldn't write as much as I used to be able to do. Being from the generation where writing meant handwriting, not typing, I was accustomed to being able to write long essays, plans, documents etc without any problem.

    Once I had ME, things like writing reports had to be done in small doses with rests in between as my handwriting would deteriorate after a couple of pages and my hand would feel week and painful.

    Now I can't write more than a couple of sentences before my writing starts falling apart. Thank goodness I can still type. It's a different action that doesn't require grip. Though after a day bumbling around on the forum my arm pain is pretty bad.
     
    Trish, Nov 12, 2018
    #12
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  13. obeat

    obeat Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    obeat, Nov 12, 2018
    #13
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  14. adambeyoncelowe

    adambeyoncelowe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    So this seems like it could be quite positive if verified?
     
    adambeyoncelowe, Nov 12, 2018
    #14
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  15. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    52,225
    Location:
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    This looks really interesting and it's helpful to know it's recognised as a measure of severity in MS too, so is seen as a valid measure.

    Is there any way this can be misused by the BPS crowd? I'm just imagining them accusing us of not trying hard enough to grip because of some sort of fear avoidance. And adding hand grip strengthening exercises to their GET treatment regimes so they can use it as a marker to prove we've improved. Sorry to sound negative, I just don't trust the BPS lot not to twist this to their advantage.
     
    Trish, Nov 12, 2018
    #15
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  16. Sasha

    Sasha Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    This is exactly my concern. Just because it's seen as a valid test in 'valid' diseases doesn't mean that it will be seen as valid in ours.
     
    Sasha, Nov 12, 2018
    #16
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  17. duncan

    duncan Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    In my eyes, they lost some serious street creds with that line. There are no proven sustained interventions across the ME community.
     
    duncan, Nov 12, 2018
    #17
  18. adambeyoncelowe

    adambeyoncelowe Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    adambeyoncelowe, Nov 12, 2018
    #18
    Luther Blissett, inox, WillowJ and 2 others like this.
  19. Sasha

    Sasha Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    There aren't yet, but surely it's a good idea to have a useful outcome measure in any intervention trial?
     
    Sasha, Nov 12, 2018
    #19
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  20. Philipp

    Philipp Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I think the point is that one could easily use it as an objective outcome measure and if there is no beneficial change, it will be noticeable. If an intervention does nothing, this test should show it unless it turns out to be unreliable in some way (due to random fluctuations when tested on different days being too huge or sth like that), so expect the BPS crowd to not adopt it.
     
    Philipp, Nov 12, 2018
    #20
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