Chronic fatigue syndrome: Features of a population of patients from northern Italy

Capelli, Enrica; Lorusso, Lorenzo; Ghitti, Michele; Venturini, Letizia; Cusa, Chiara; Ricevuti, Giovanni

doi:10.1177/0394632015572074

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Seventy percent stated their mononucleosis was due to Epstein-Barr virus while 16% noted cytomegalovirus-associated mononucleosis .c The most common autoimmune illness was Hashimoto's thyroiditis with a prevalence of 15%. Others mentioned were vitiligo, celiac disease, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, interstitial cystitis, Sjogren's syndrome, and multiple sclerosis .d Prevalence figures for conditions cited are from the following references: anxiety (24, 39, 41, 51), depression (21, 24, 40, 41), fibromyalgia (19, 24, 26–28, 35, 39, 41, 51, 52), irritable bowel syndrome (19, 25–29, 52), symptomatic infectious mononucleosis (25), migraine headaches (53), autoimmune conditions (25, 40, 54), chronic sinusitis (55), hay fever (55), hypothyroidism (general) (24, 41, 55), multiple chemical sensitivities (19, 27, 35, 55), sleep apnea (41, 56), TMJ (27, 28, 51), POTS (35, 42, 52, 57, 58) .e Prevalence figures for conditions are cited from the following references: anxiety (59), depression (59), fibromyalgia (60), irritable bowel syndrome (61), symptomatic infectious mononucleosis (62), migraine headaches (63), autoimmune conditions (64), chronic sinusitis (65), hay fever (65), hypothyroidism (general) (66), peripheral neuropathy (67), multiple chemical sensitivities (68), sleep apnea (69), TMJ (70), POTS (58) .f No study found addressing this topic specifically .…”

Section: Personal Medical Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…d Prevalence figures for conditions cited are from the following references: anxiety (24, 39, 41, 51), depression (21, 24, 40, 41), fibromyalgia (19, 24, 26–28, 35, 39, 41, 51, 52), irritable bowel syndrome (19, 25–29, 52), symptomatic infectious mononucleosis (25), migraine headaches (53), autoimmune conditions (25, 40, 54), chronic sinusitis (55), hay fever (55), hypothyroidism (general) (24, 41, 55), multiple chemical sensitivities (19, 27, 35, 55), sleep apnea (41, 56), TMJ (27, 28, 51), POTS (35, 42, 52, 57, 58) .…”

Section: Personal Medical Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering that ~75% of people affected are women (16, 40, 41, 43, 104, 124–126) and that onset often occurs during their reproductive years, i.e., between the ages of 10–40 (16, 23, 39–42), exceptionally few studies have evaluated the impact of female reproductive events on ME/CFS. During casual conversations or in the clinic, patients will occasionally relate that their ME/CFS began during or shortly after pregnancy.…”

Section: Events Associated With the Female Reproductive System Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Onset Patterns and Course of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Epidemiologic studies of myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have examined different aspects of this disease separately but few have explored them together.Objective: Describe ME/CFS onset and course in one United States-based cohort.Methods: One hundred and fifty subjects fitting Fukuda 1994 CFS criteria completed a detailed survey concerning the initial and subsequent stages of their illness. Descriptive statistics, graphs, and tables were used to illustrate prevalence and patterns of characteristics.Results: The most common peri-onset events reported by subjects were infection-related episodes (64%), stressful incidents (39%), and exposure to environmental toxins (20%). For 38% of subjects, more than 6 months elapsed from experiencing any initial symptom to developing the set of symptoms comprising their ME/CFS. Over time, the 12 most common symptoms persisted but declined in prevalence, with fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, exertion-related sickness, and flu-like symptoms declining the most (by 20–25%). Conversely, cognitive symptoms changed the least in prevalence, rising in symptom ranking. Pregnancy, menopause, and menstrual cycles exacerbated many women's symptoms. Fatigue-related function was not associated with duration of illness or age; during the worst periods of their illness, 48% of subjects could not engage in any productive activity. At the time of survey, 47% were unable to work and only 4% felt their condition was improving steadily with the majority (59%) describing a fluctuating course. Ninety-seven percent suffered from at least one other illness: anxiety (48%), depression (43%), fibromyalgia (39%), irritable bowel syndrome (38%), and migraine headaches (37%) were the most diagnosed conditions. Thirteen percent came from families where at least one other first-degree relative was also afflicted, rising to 27% when chronic fatigue of unclear etiology was included.Conclusions: This paper offers a broad epidemiologic overview of one ME/CFS cohort in the United States. While most of our findings are consistent with prior studies, we highlight underexamined aspects of this condition (e.g., the evolution of symptoms) and propose new interpretations of findings. Studying these aspects can offer insight and solutions to the diagnosis, etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of this condition.

show abstract

Section: Personal Medical Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Personal Medical Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Events Associated With the Female Reproductive System Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Onset Patterns and Course of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…ME/CFS is estimated to affect as many as 2.5 million people in the United States, which corresponds to about 1% of the total U.S. population (Vincent et al, 2012;Ganiats, 2015;Komaroff, 2015). Other studies (Jason et al, 2009), including those conducted in Minnesota (Vincent et al, 2012), as well as in the United Kingdom (Nacul et al, 2011;Collin et al, 2017), Norway (Bakken et al, 2014), and Italy (Capelli et al, 2015), report a lower incidence. Women are apparently more susceptible than men, with an estimated ratio of 4:1 (Germain et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome—Metabolic Disease or Disturbed Homeostasis due to Focal Inflammation in the Hypothalamus?

Hatziagelaki

Adamaki

Tsilioni

et al. 2018

J Pharmacol Exp Ther

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex disease characterized by debilitating fatigue, lasting for at least 6 months, with associated malaise, headaches, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment, which severely impacts quality of life. A significant percentage of ME/CFS patients remain undiagnosed, mainly due to the complexity of the disease and the lack of reliable objective biomarkers. ME/CFS patients display decreased metabolism and the severity of symptoms appears to be directly correlated to the degree of metabolic reduction that may be unique to each individual patient. However, the precise pathogenesis is still unknown, preventing the development of effective treatments. The ME/CFS phenotype has been associated with abnormalities in energy metabolism, which are apparently due to mitochondrial dysfunction in the absence of mitochondrial diseases, resulting in reduced oxidative metabolism. Such mitochondria may be further contributing to the ME/CFS symptomatology by extracellular secretion of mitochondrial DNA, which could act as an innate pathogen and create an autoinflammatory state in the hypothalamus. We propose that stimulation of hypothalamic mast cells by environmental, neuroimmune, pathogenic and stress triggers activates microglia, leading to focal inflammation in the brain and disturbed homeostasis. This process could be targeted for the development of novel effective treatments.

show abstract

“…В нашем исследовании, как и в опубликованных работах других авторов, в группе пациентов со слабостью преобладают женщины средних лет [29][30][31]. Возможно, гормональный фон, склонность к эмоциональным реакциям у женщин способствуют развитию СХУ [32,33].…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Chronic fatigue syndrome in the routine hematology practice

Потапенко

Геннадьевич²,

Ballyuzek

et al. 2020

HERALD of North-Western State Medical University named after I.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose. Presentation of clinical signs and laboratory profiles of the patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, and comparison of their symptoms with those of the patients with iron deficiency anemia. Materials and methods. Retrospective analysis of the patients symptoms referred to the hematologist outpatient clinic during the period between January 2016 and December 2018. Results. There were 560 patients(162 males and 398 females) referred for a primary consultation by a hematologist. Median age was 52.5 (1894) years. The unexplained fatigue was reported by 27 (4.8%) patients (1 male and 26 females), median age 41 (2466) years. Diagnosis chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was confirmed based on the criteria in 17 (63%) patients. 10 patients (47%) with symptoms partially meeting the criteria were diagnosed idiopathic fatigue syndrome (SIF). Half of the patients connected the onset of the diseases with emotional trauma (family issues etc.). The prevailing complaints (30%) were represented by: prolonged fatigue, mild memory impairment and distraction, arthralgia and insomnia. The most frequent reason to see a hematologist was fatigue and borderline changes in the blood tests. Five patients with CFS and 2 patients with SIF were known to have previously diagnosed iron deficient anemia (IDA). Median level of hemoglobin in the patients with severe fatigue and IDA was 10.7 (8.411.7) g/dl. Median follow up duration was 28 (640) months. In the observed group (n = 23) 17% of the patients (n = 4) showed spontaneous improvement. The rest of the patients had reported no changes. The comparison group (n = 64) included the patients with IDA. Most of them (n = 38) did not report fatigue as their initial symptoms (median level of hemoglobin was 9.35 (5.511.9) g/dl). Twenty six patients reported fatigue; median level of hemoglobin was 8.15 (5.911.7) g/dl. The difference between the hemoglobin levels in two groups was significant (р 0.05). However, there was no correlation between the level of hemoglobin and fatigue in the patients with CFS and SIF. The correlation was found in the patients with CFS and SIF between fatigue and patients perception. Conclusion. The main symptoms accompanying CFS are fatigue and other non-specific symptoms which are often related to patients emotional status. Considering CFS as a differential diagnosis when dealing with fatigue is essential.

show abstract

Chronic fatigue syndrome: Features of a population of patients from northern Italy

Cited by 8 publications

References 23 publications

Onset Patterns and Course of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Onset Patterns and Course of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome—Metabolic Disease or Disturbed Homeostasis due to Focal Inflammation in the Hypothalamus?

Chronic fatigue syndrome in the routine hematology practice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About