Jäkel, Bianka, Kedor, Claudia, Grabowski, Patricia et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2021 · DOI
This study tested hand grip strength in ME/CFS patients compared to healthy people and cancer patients to see if it could help diagnose the condition. Researchers found that ME/CFS patients had weaker grip strength and their muscles got tired much faster during repeated squeezing tests. Importantly, their muscles also recovered more slowly after resting for an hour, suggesting that muscle fatigue is a real, measurable feature of ME/CFS.
This research provides an objective, practical clinical test that could help diagnose ME/CFS and measure disease severity—addressing a major unmet need since ME/CFS currently lacks standardized biomarkers. The findings validate that abnormal muscle fatigue in ME/CFS is a measurable physiological phenomenon, not a psychological issue, which has important implications for patient recognition and clinical management.
This study does not prove that hand grip testing is definitively diagnostic for ME/CFS, as it is cross-sectional and does not establish causation. The mechanism behind abnormal fatigability remains unclear, and findings from hand grip strength may not fully represent whole-body muscle function. The study also cannot determine whether these muscular changes are primary to ME/CFS or secondary consequences of the condition.
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 →
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