The proof's in the pudding, the old saying — which seems slightly seasonal — goes. So when a Stanford team compared images of brains affected by chronic fatigue syndrome, with those healthy brains, they found noticeable differences, including misshaped white matter, the cells that coordinate communication between brain regions. The news garnered immediate attention and has now been featured in a New York Times piece:
The relationship between the symptoms experienced by patients and the findings is unclear. The two parts of the brain connected by the abnormally shaped white matter are believed to be important for language use, said Michael Zeineh, MD, a radiologist at Stanford and the lead author...
"This opens the door to more detailed investigations because now we have targets for future research," he said.
The Times also refers to another study, published in March, that found cerebral inflammation in patients who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, or, as it is also called, myalgic encephalomyelitis/ C.F.S. This is big news for a condition that's often misdiagnosed — patients are sometimes forced to visit numerous doctors and battle insurance companies — all while fighting the debilitating symptoms — before securing a diagnosis.
The Times touches on the tricky politics of the disease as well:
Next month, a panel convened by the National Institutes of Health will hold a two-day workshop charged with “advancing the research” on the illness of the disorder. The Institute of Medicine is conducting a separate, government-sponsored initiative to assess and evaluate the many sets of diagnostic criteria for M.E./C.F.S., with the results expected next year.
Advocacy groups have questioned the rationale for two separate efforts. They have also criticized the initiatives because in both cases many people with little or no expertise in M.E./C.F.S. will be voting on recommendations that could have a significant impact on the government’s future efforts.
Previously: Patients' reaction to ME/CFS coverage in Stanford Medicine magazine, Some headway on chronic fatigue syndrome: Brain abnormalities pinpointed and Unbroken: A chronic fatigue syndrome patient's long road to recovery
Image by geralt
