Denu, Mawulorm K I, Revoori, Ritika, Eghan, Cherita et al. · Scientific reports · 2025 · DOI
This study found that people with ME/CFS are significantly more likely to have heart and cardiovascular problems compared to people without ME/CFS. Researchers analyzed health data from over 114,000 Americans and discovered that even after accounting for common heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking, ME/CFS remained strongly linked to cardiovascular disease. The findings suggest that people with ME/CFS should be monitored more closely for heart health issues.
This study provides population-level evidence that ME/CFS patients face substantially elevated cardiovascular risk independent of classical risk factors, suggesting mechanisms specific to ME/CFS may contribute to CVD development. This finding underscores the need for integrated cardiovascular screening and monitoring in ME/CFS clinical care, potentially improving health outcomes for this medically underserved population. Understanding the ME/CFS-CVD association may reveal shared pathophysiological mechanisms relevant to both conditions.
This study cannot establish whether ME/CFS causes cardiovascular disease, whether cardiovascular disease causes or exacerbates ME/CFS, or whether an unmeasured factor causes both conditions. The cross-sectional design captures associations at a single time point and cannot determine temporal sequence. The reliance on self-reported diagnoses may introduce diagnostic accuracy concerns and potential misclassification bias.
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
Denu, Mawulorm K I, Revoori, Ritika, Eghan, Cherita, Kwapong, Fredrick Larbi, Hillman, Andrew, Normeshie, Cornelius A, et al. (2025). Association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and cardiovascular disease.. Scientific reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86609-4
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-denu-2025-association-between,
author = {Denu, Mawulorm K I and Revoori, Ritika and Eghan, Cherita and Kwapong, Fredrick Larbi and Hillman, Andrew and Normeshie, Cornelius A and Berko, Kofi Poku and Aidoo, Emily L and Buadu, Maame Araba E},
title = {Association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and cardiovascular disease.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-025-86609-4},
note = {PubMed: 39833264},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/denu-2025-association-between},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/denu-2025-association-between
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.