Imai, Kazuaki, Yamano, Takafumi, Nishi, Soichiro et al. · Viruses · 2022 · DOI
This study tested a Japanese treatment called epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) on 58 long COVID patients. The treatment involves applying zinc chloride to the back of the throat to reduce inflammation. Patients received weekly treatments for one month, and three common symptoms—fatigue, headaches, and difficulty concentrating—improved significantly after treatment.
This research is relevant to ME/CFS because long COVID and ME/CFS share overlapping symptoms including post-exertional malaise, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction. If epipharyngeal inflammation contributes to these conditions, a targeted anti-inflammatory approach could offer a new therapeutic avenue for symptom management in both populations.
This study does not prove that EAT is an effective long COVID or ME/CFS treatment because it lacks a control group and relies on subjective symptom reporting without objective biomarkers. The improvement in symptoms could reflect placebo effect, natural recovery, or other confounding factors. Results cannot be generalized beyond the specific population studied, and long-term efficacy remains unknown.
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
Imai, Kazuaki, Yamano, Takafumi, Nishi, Soichiro, Nishi, Ryushiro, Nishi, Tatsuro, Tanaka, Hiroaki, et al. (2022). Epipharyngeal Abrasive Therapy (EAT) Has Potential as a Novel Method for Long COVID Treatment.. Viruses. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14050907
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-imai-2022-epipharyngeal-abrasive,
author = {Imai, Kazuaki and Yamano, Takafumi and Nishi, Soichiro and Nishi, Ryushiro and Nishi, Tatsuro and Tanaka, Hiroaki and Tsunoda, Toshiyuki and Yoshimoto, Shohei and Tanaka, Ayaki and Hiromatsu, Kenji and Shirasawa, Senji and Nakagawa, Takashi and Nishi, Kensuke},
title = {Epipharyngeal Abrasive Therapy (EAT) Has Potential as a Novel Method for Long COVID Treatment.},
journal = {Viruses},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.3390/v14050907},
note = {PubMed: 35632649},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/imai-2022-epipharyngeal-abrasive},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/imai-2022-epipharyngeal-abrasive
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