Hollingsworth, K G, Hodgson, T, Macgowan, G A et al. · Journal of internal medicine · 2012 · DOI
This study used advanced heart imaging (MRI) to look at how the hearts of people with ME/CFS work compared to healthy people. Researchers found that ME/CFS patients had smaller hearts with less blood volume, weaker pumping strength, and abnormal twisting and relaxation patterns. These heart changes may help explain why ME/CFS patients experience such severe fatigue and exercise intolerance.
This study provides objective cardiac imaging evidence of functional heart impairment in ME/CFS, moving beyond symptom reports to demonstrate measurable physiological abnormalities. Understanding these cardiac deficits is crucial for validating ME/CFS as a biomedically-based condition and may inform treatment strategies or prognosis assessment.
This study does not prove that cardiac dysfunction causes ME/CFS or that it is primary rather than a secondary consequence of the disease. It cannot establish whether these cardiac changes are progressive, reversible, or present in all ME/CFS patients. The findings are correlational and based on a small sample, so they cannot be generalized to the broader ME/CFS population without larger studies.
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
Hollingsworth, K G, Hodgson, T, Macgowan, G A, Blamire, A M, & Newton, J L (2012). Impaired cardiac function in chronic fatigue syndrome measured using magnetic resonance cardiac tagging.. Journal of internal medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02429.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hollingsworth-2012-impaired-cardiac,
author = {Hollingsworth, K G and Hodgson, T and Macgowan, G A and Blamire, A M and Newton, J L},
title = {Impaired cardiac function in chronic fatigue syndrome measured using magnetic resonance cardiac tagging.},
journal = {Journal of internal medicine},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02429.x},
note = {PubMed: 21793948},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hollingsworth-2012-impaired-cardiac},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hollingsworth-2012-impaired-cardiac
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