Raman Spectroscopy Analysis Supports Composition Differences In Me/cfs Plasma Evs
Intrigued by the fact that four out of the six physical associated parameters of EVs , corresponding to the size and zeta potential of vesicles were discriminating features selected by our initial PLS-DA model , we decided to further explore the differential nature of ME/CFS EVs by Raman spectroscopy analysis, an approach that has proven to differentiate EVs from various cell sources and has been successfully used to detect ME/CFS specific changes in PBMCs .
Raman analysis of the 15 severe ME/CFS cases and 15 HC EVs isolated from aliquots of the plasma used in our earlier study , clearly show prominent Raman bands at 1,158 and 1,521 cm1 . These bands are characteristic of carotenoids with the CC stretching mode contributing to the 1,158-cm1 band and the C = C stretching mode of the conjugated chain in carotenoids contributing to the 1,510-cm1 band . Further quantification of results for these two bands are shown in Figure 3B, illustrating a significant higher content of carotenoids in ME/CFS patients than in HCs .
Assessing The Impact Of Illness On Cognition
Tests can be useful to assess if and how patients cognitive skills, such as concentration, memory, and organization, are or become impacted by illness. This additional testing can also be useful in identifying particular areas in which specific tools or strategies might help. Assessments and strategic interventions may be particularly helpful to children and adolescents with ME/CFS. Academic attendance and performance are important for these patients, and their specific educational needs should be addressed.
Disclaimer: The content of this ME/CFS website is for informational purposes only and does not represent a federal guideline or recommendation for the treatment of ME/CFS. The information provided on this website is not intended to be a substitute for the medical judgment of the healthcare provider and does not indicate an exclusive course of action or treatment.
Guidelines For Diagnosing Me/cfs
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence say doctors should consider diagnosing ME/CFS if a patient has extreme tiredness that cannot be explained by other causes and the tiredness:
- started recently, has lasted a long time, or keeps coming back
- means you cannot do the things you used to do
- gets worse after activity or gentle exercise, such as a short walk
You must also have some of these symptoms:
- problems sleeping, such as insomnia
- muscle or joint pain
- fast or irregular heartbeats
- doing exercise or concentrating makes your symptoms worse
The GP should consult a specialist if they’re unsure about the diagnosis or if you have severe symptoms.
If a child or young person under 18 has symptoms of possible ME/CFS, they may be referred to a paediatrician.
As the symptoms of ME/CFS are similar to those of many common illnesses that usually get better on their own, a diagnosis of ME/CFS may be considered if you do not get better as quickly as expected.
The diagnosis should be confirmed by a doctor after other conditions have been ruled out, and if your symptoms have lasted at least 3 months.
Page last reviewed: 29 October 2021 Next review due: 29 October 2024
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Where Can You Find Lymedisease Specialists Testing Labs
If you have been bitten by an infected tick it is worth investigating Lyme Disease as an alternative diagnosis to CFS or ME.
Lyme disease test:
In her book, Out of the Woods, Katina recommends the following as the gold standard Lyme disease specialists test labs of the world:
- Igenex, Clongen in USA
Move to read more about Katina’s experience of alternative healing for Lyme.
How Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is Diagnosed
The path to a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome can be frustrating. The condition is characterized by its symptoms and there is no single test that can confirm it. Complicating the issue even further is the fact that many CFS symptoms mirror those of other illnesses, including heart, lung, thyroid, and even psychiatric disorders.
As a disease, chronic fatigue syndrome is diagnosed when other possible explanations for how you are feeling have been explored and excluded.
The condition is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis or systemic exertion intolerance disease .
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Symptoms include overwhelming fatigue, joint pain, headaches and sleep problems. No cause or diagnosis has yet been established and the condition can render patients bed- or house-bound for years.
The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, analyzed blood samples from trial volunteers using a nanoelectronic assay a test that measures changes in tiny amounts of energy as a proxy for the health of immune cells and blood plasma.
The scientists stressed the blood samples using salt, and then compared the responses. The results, they said, showed that all the CFS patients blood samples creating a clear spike, while those from healthy controls remained relatively stable.
We dont know exactly why the cells and plasma are acting this way, or even what theyre doing, said Ron Davis, a professor of biochemistry and of genetics who co-led the study.
we clearly see a difference in the way healthy and chronic fatigue syndrome immune cells process stress.
Other experts not directly involved in this work cautioned, however, that its findings showed there is still a long way to go before a biomarker is found that can establish CFS diagnosis and distinguish it from other conditions with similar symptoms.
What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated disease for doctors to diagnose and even fully understand.
CFS is a physical condition, but it can also affect a person psychologically. This means that someone with CFS may feel physical symptoms, such as being very tired and weak , headaches, or dizziness. But the person may also notice emotional symptoms, such as a loss of interest in favorite activities.
To make it even more complicated, different people with CFS can have different symptoms. And the symptoms of CFS often are similar those of other health conditions, like mono, Lyme disease, or depression. And the symptoms can vary over time, even in the same person.
This makes treating the illness complicated because no single medicine or treatment can address all the possible symptoms.
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How Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treated
Treatment is determined by your healthcare provider and based on:
- Your overall health and medical history
- Extent of the condition
- Your tolerance for specific medicines, procedures, or therapies
- Expectations for the course of the condition
- Your opinion or preference
- Medicine, including corticosteroids, antidepressants, and others
- Light-intensity aerobic exercise
- Dietary supplements and herbal preparations
- Psychotherapy and supportive counseling
Samples And Associated Clinical Data
Ethical approval of the study was granted by the Public Health Research Ethics Committee DGSP-CSISP, Valencia , study number UCV_201701 and by the UCL Biobank Ethical Review Committee-Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust , study number EC2017.01 before the samples were released by the UKMEB.
Data for the initial PLS-DA analysis corresponded to Nanostring datasets generated during a previous study of our group , available from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus database and the of the cited article. The samples for the Raman analysis consisted of EV aliquots from the cited study isolated from 0.5 ml of platelet poor plasma from 15 severely ill ME/CFS females and 15 age-population matched healthy females, obtained from dipotassium EDTA blood-collection tubes by UKMEB professionals.
As previously described, patient recruitment and clinical assessment for the UKMEB was mainly performed through the UK National Health Service primary and secondary health care services . Compliance with the Canadian Consensus , CDC-1994 and Institute of Medicine criteria were ensured for patient recruitment . Clinical diagnosis was complemented with score differences in the SF-36 questionnaire and the GHQ , the last also assessed by a Likert scale .
All methods were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. All subjects signed an informed consent before samples could be included in the corresponding sample collection.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Me/cfs
The most common symptom is ongoing, unexplained overwhelming tiredness or fatigue which worsens after exercise or mental effort. This is known as post-exertional malaise . The level of activity that triggers PEM will vary from person to person and can depend on how severe their condition is. PEM is sometimes delayed and can last for a few days. A more serious relapse can last for weeks or months.
A common misconception is that people with ME/CFS have chronic fatigue and are just very tired. Persistent and profound fatigue is just one symptom of ME/CFS.
Other symptoms may include:
Some people may experience only mild symptoms, but others may develop more severe symptoms.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is Notoriously Difficult To Diagnose And Treat But With Long Covid Shining A Light On Similar Symptoms Chloe Kent Asks If A Test For The Condition Could Become A Reality For Patients
reating chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis , starts with getting the right diagnosis something that, for many patients, can prove elusive. Characterised by debilitating tiredness, the condition is notoriously difficult to pin down and even more challenging to treat.
CFS/ME expands far beyond exhaustion alone, with patients often also enduring flulike symptoms, musculoskeletal pain and brain fog. Around one in four people with CFS/ME are so severely unwell they are housebound.
The difficulties in obtaining a diagnosis are numerous. Patients typically undergo extensive tests for their various physical symptoms before landing on a diagnosis of CFS/ME when no other condition can be found to fit.
Symptoms can be nebulous and vary over time, leading to uncertainty about the underlying problem for both the patient and clinician and many people with CFS/ME also report being repeatedly disbelieved by doctors.
The emergence of long Covid which some clinicians believe could be CFS/ME presenting at a large scale from one single, identifiable cause has reopened the discussion around ME diagnosis.
Research carried out at Imperial College London recently suggested that long Covid could be diagnosed through a simple blood test. Researchers have been able to find specific autoantibodies in the blood of long Covid patients that were not found in the blood of people who recovered quickly from Covid-19 or never tested positive for the disease.
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Measurements Of Plasma Brain Natriuretic Peptide Levels For Guidance Of Targeted Therapy Of Cfs
In a case-control study, Tomas and colleagues examined levels of the brain natriuretic peptide and their association with the cardiac abnormalities recently identified in CFS. Cardiac magnetic resonance examinations were performed using 3T Philips Intera Achieva scanner in CFS patients and sedentary controls matched for age and sex BNP was also measured by using an enzyme immunoassay in plasma from 42 patients with CFS and 10 controls. BNP levels were significantly higher in the CFS cohort compared with the matched controls . When these researchers compared cardiac volumes between those with high BNP levels and low BNP , there were significantly lower cardiac volumes in those with the higher BNP levels in both end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes . There were no relationships between fatigue severity, length of disease and BNP levels suggesting that these findings were unlikely to be related to deconditioning. The authors concluded that the findings of this study confirmed an association between reduced cardiac volumes and BNP in CFS lack of relationship between length of disease suggested that findings were not secondary to deconditioning. They stated that further studies are needed to examine the utility of blood BNP to act as a stratification paradigm in CFS that directs targeted treatments.
Pathway And Gene Enrichment Analysis
Analysis of predicted and validated miRNA-mRNA interactions was performed with the freely available software MiRTargetLink 2.0 . Gene ontology enrichment analysis was performed using the miEAA tool incorporated into MiRTargetLink 2.0, targets were retrieved, sorted by adjusted p-value, and presented in table format. Selected networks of mRNAs targeted by at least two miRNAs were drawn using Adobe Illustrator software.
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Diagnostic Criteria For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Your doctor will order tests only when you meet diagnostic criteria. It means you should have persistent, unexplained fatigue for at least six months with other symptoms. Here is more about these symptoms:
Fatigue
Persistent tiredness or fatigue is the most common symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The extreme exhaustion lasts for more than 24 hours after mental or physical exercise and keeps you from living comfortably. The tiredness you experience in CFS will not go away with rest, is different from everyday tiredness, is not due to muscle weakness, is not like tiredness after over-exertion, and is not accompanied by loss of pleasure or motivation.
Other Symptoms
In addition to fatigue, there will be some other symptoms as well.
- You will experience cognitive difficulties, such as bad short-term memory, poor concentration and reduced attention span. You may also find it difficult to organize your thoughts and feel disorientated.
- You will experience sleeping difficulties. Some people are unable to sleep while others may face issues such as early waking or disrupted sleep/wake patterns.
- You will notice muscular pains, headaches and joint pains as well.
Some people with CFS have also reported some other symptoms, such as palpitations, nausea and dizziness.
Severity of the Symptoms
- Mild
If your symptoms are mild, you will be able to do light domestic tasks with some difficulty. Still, you will be able to complete your jobs.
- Moderate
- Severe
Refinement Of The Initial Pls
The results of Raman spectrometry analysis show that to be developed as a more comprehensive diagnostic tool the use of further information is required. Therefore, we proceeded to reanalyze our first multi-block PLS-DA model to check if the relevant Raman wavelengths selected by the PLS-DA model on the spectroscopy data could be useful predictors when combined with the previously identified biomarkers.
To study this possibility, we fitted a PLS-DA model using the selected variables from the former PLS-DA model, adding the key differential wavelengths from our PLS-DA analysis of Raman spectroscopy data. It is important to highlight that the adequacy of this approach resides in the fact that the samples used to generate the two models came from the same blood samples. The reason for maintaining the use of PLS-DA, was that according to the previous results, it was a technique yielding one of the best classification performances and the only one enabling the interpretation of the discriminant power of the predictors, establishing a set of statistically significant biomarkers.
The observed vs. predicted values for the observations in the calibration set and in the external validation set, show that classes can be perfectly separated . This is also illustrated by the ROC curves in Figures 6D,F, showing that a threshold on the predicted outcome of 0.481 yields a perfect classification with an AUC of 1.
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Uk Allergy Testing Clinic
If you want to access more extensive allergy testing in the UK, the Breakspear Clinic in Hertfordshire UK specialises in treating allergy and environmental illness.They also test for ongoing infections which are a further Chronic Fatigue Syndrome test of exclusion.
Breakspear use a variety of tests and laboratories.
I would have used the Breakspear if I hadn’t been ill and without sufficient support to attend. I do know someone with ME who has been helped by their treatments.
Click through for more about Breakspear testing for CFS. Breakspear also discuss their theory about the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the treatments they offer to heal the probable causes.
Blood Test Might Diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 30, 2019 — Chronic fatigue syndrome is such a mysterious illness that it took years to be recognized as a legitimate ailment, and doctors still struggle to accurately diagnose it.
Now, an experimental blood test has successfully spotted the syndrome, also known as CFS, in a finding that hopefully provides new insights into the inscrutable illness.
The test tracks changes in the electrical pattern of a person’s cells, and it accurately flagged all CFS patients in a small group of 40 people, researchers report.
“When we stress the cells, we can easily differentiate them based on the signal they are showing,” said lead author Rahim Esfandyarpour. “It’s a huge difference.”
Esfandyarpour worked on the test with a team while at Stanford University in California. He’s now an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Irvine.
Currently, doctors must diagnose CFS based on the symptoms a patient has developed. There’s no lab test that can provide a definitive diagnosis.
“There is no biomarker or diagnostic tool,” Esfandyarpour said. “It’s all based on the symptoms.”
Sometimes people are even told it’s all in their imagination. As many as 2.5 million Americans suffer from CFS, and 9 of 10 have not been diagnosed, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So they created a way to track the metabolism of cells by observing their electrical activity.
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Test Through A Haematologist
The blood test results image here is of my own blood tests done privately through Biolab, London, UK. Read about the tests available below.
Your doctor can and should take blood tests for you.
Early blood tests showed that I had an ongoing viral infection at a time when I no longer had clear symptoms of a virus. These test results were consistent with the theory of a viral cause for CFS.
Two consecutive tests showed a low white blood cell count and I was referred to a haematologist fairly early on in the illness.
Please note that you may not have any positive result from a blood test. Many people with CFS do not. It does NOT mean you are not ill.
I was lucky to be sent to a haematologist who was an inquiring doctor and took my symptoms seriously even though I had no diagnosis at the time.
In 1993 after 18 months of serious illness, I was finally diagnosed with ME . The haematologist then said he had thought that was the illness I had from the blood test results.
I have always pondered on the implication that the blood test results were in some way able to be used as a ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome test by someone with sufficient knowledge.
It reassured me to visit the haemotologist every few years to have blood tests repeated.
