De Meirleir, Kenny L, Mijatovic, Tatjana, Subramanian, Krishnamurthy et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2018 · DOI
Researchers tested four substances in the blood of 140 ME/CFS patients and 140 healthy people to see if they could help diagnose the disease. They found that three specific markers—sCD14, prostaglandin E2, and interleukin 8—were most useful for identifying ME/CFS. These findings suggest that a simple blood test might one day help doctors confirm ME/CFS diagnosis more quickly and objectively.
ME/CFS currently lacks objective diagnostic biomarkers, requiring costly subjective clinical assessments that often delay diagnosis. This study identifies specific blood markers that could potentially streamline diagnosis and validate ME/CFS as a biological disease, improving patient outcomes and research standardization.
This study does not prove that these three markers directly cause ME/CFS—they may simply be associated with the disease. The findings require external validation in independent patient populations before clinical implementation, and the study does not establish whether these markers change over time or correlate with disease severity and progression.
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
De Meirleir, Kenny L, Mijatovic, Tatjana, Subramanian, Krishnamurthy, Schlauch, Karen A, & Lombardi, Vincent C (2018). Evaluation of four clinical laboratory parameters for the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-018-1696-z
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-de-meirleir-2018-evaluation-four,
author = {De Meirleir, Kenny L and Mijatovic, Tatjana and Subramanian, Krishnamurthy and Schlauch, Karen A and Lombardi, Vincent C},
title = {Evaluation of four clinical laboratory parameters for the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-018-1696-z},
note = {PubMed: 30463572},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/de-meirleir-2018-evaluation-four},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/de-meirleir-2018-evaluation-four
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