A study of 15 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome has found
that patients' brains have at least three distinct abnormalities when
compared to healthy people, researchers said Wednesday.
The
findings, if confirmed, could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat
the troublesome condition that affects more than a million Americans,
said the study conducted by Stanford University researchers in the
peer-reviewed journal Radiology.
"Using
a trio of sophisticated imaging methodologies, we found that CFS
patients' brains diverge from those of healthy subjects in at least
three distinct ways," said lead author Michael Zeineh, assistant
professor of radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 15 CFS patients and 14 age- and gender-matched controls.
They
found CFS patients had slightly less white matter in the brain, as well
as abnormalities in a nerve tract within the brain's right hemisphere.
"BRAIN FOG"
For
CFS patients, "the differences correlated with their fatigue — the more
abnormal the tract, the worse the fatigue," Zeineh said.
The
imaging study also found abnormalities among CFS patients in two areas
that connect the right arcuate fasciculus. Each connection point, known
as a cortex, was thicker in CFS patients, the researchers said.
Until
now, chronic fatigue syndrome has been difficult to diagnose, with its
characteristic "brain fog" enduring more than six months and coinciding
with a host of other symptoms.
"CFS
is one of the greatest scientific and medical challenges of our time,"
said the study's senior author, Jose Montoya, professor of infectious
diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford.
"Its
symptoms often include not only overwhelming fatigue, but also joint
and muscle pain, incapacitating headaches, food intolerance, sore
throat, enlargement of the lymph nodes, gastrointestinal problems,
abnormal blood-pressure and heart-rate events, and hypersensitivity to
light, noise or other sensations."
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