Abu-Judeh, H H, Levine, S, Kumar, M et al. · Nuclear medicine communications · 1998 · DOI
Researchers used two different types of brain scans to look at blood flow and energy use in patients with ME/CFS. They found that these two scans gave different results: many patients had abnormal blood flow patterns, but most had normal energy metabolism. This suggests that ME/CFS may affect how blood moves through the brain differently than how the brain uses glucose for energy.
This study provides objective evidence that ME/CFS involves measurable brain abnormalities, helping validate the biological basis of the condition. The discordance between perfusion and metabolism findings suggests ME/CFS may have a specific pathophysiological mechanism affecting blood flow regulation independently of energy consumption, which could guide future treatment development.
This study does not establish causation or explain why perfusion abnormalities occur. The small sample size (n=18) and lack of healthy controls limit the ability to generalize findings. The findings do not definitively prove that perfusion abnormalities directly cause ME/CFS symptoms.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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