Azcue, N, Barranco, C, Tijero-Merino, B et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2026 · DOI
Researchers compared 21 people with post-COVID condition and 17 people with ME/CFS over about 2.5 years, measuring nerve function, autonomic symptoms, and cognitive performance. They observed that both groups showed similar patterns of changes over time—including worsening processing speed and cold sensation sensitivity, but improving heat sensation thresholds and verbal memory. While the two conditions appeared increasingly alike on follow-up testing, the study does not establish whether they are truly the same disease or simply share overlapping symptoms.
This study provides rare longitudinal data on autonomic, sensory, and cognitive patterns in post-COVID condition and ME/CFS over 2.5 years. By analogy, understanding whether post-COVID condition converges toward ME/CFS phenotypes over time may help researchers and clinicians identify shared biological pathways and predict long-term clinical trajectories in ME/CFS itself.
This study does not establish that post-COVID condition and ME/CFS are identical diseases or that they follow identical trajectories. It does not confirm any underlying mechanism—only that certain domain measures correlated or changed over time. The absence of healthy control groups prevents determination of whether observed changes are pathological or part of normal variation. The small sample size and lack of FDR-corrected baseline differences between groups limit generalizability beyond this cohort.
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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Azcue, N, Barranco, C, Tijero-Merino, B, Acera, M, Fernández-Valle, T, Lafuente, J V, et al. (2026). Two-timepoint multidomain follow-up of post-COVID condition and ME/CFS: overlapping autonomic, small-fiber, and cognitive changes.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-026-08321-9
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-azcue-2026-two-timepoint,
author = {Azcue, N and Barranco, C and Tijero-Merino, B and Acera, M and Fernández-Valle, T and Lafuente, J V and Gabilondo, I and Ruiz-Lopez, M and Del Pino, Rocio and Gómez-Esteban, J C},
title = {Two-timepoint multidomain follow-up of post-COVID condition and ME/CFS: overlapping autonomic, small-fiber, and cognitive changes.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-026-08321-9},
note = {PubMed: 42286686},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/azcue-2026-two-timepoint},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-06-15. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/azcue-2026-two-timepoint
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