Maquet, Didier, Croisier, Jean-Louis, Dupont, Catherine et al. · Joint bone spine · 2010 · DOI
This study measured how muscles work during sustained effort by recording electrical signals from shoulder muscles in people with fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, depression, and healthy controls. People with fibromyalgia stopped their muscle contraction much earlier than others and showed a distinctive electrical pattern suggesting their muscles gave up prematurely. Importantly, ME/CFS patients showed muscle patterns very similar to healthy people, not the abnormal pattern seen in fibromyalgia.
This study is important because it provides objective electrophysiological evidence distinguishing ME/CFS from fibromyalgia—two conditions often confused clinically. The finding that ME/CFS patients have normal muscle electrical patterns similar to healthy controls challenges assumptions that muscle dysfunction drives ME/CFS symptoms, potentially redirecting research focus toward central nervous system and metabolic mechanisms.
This study does not establish causation—it shows a cross-sectional correlation at one time point. The normal EMG findings in ME/CFS do not prove patients lack functional impairment; muscle electrical function during one isometric test does not capture post-exertional malaise or sustained activity limitations. The small ME/CFS sample (n=11) limits generalizability.
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
Maquet, Didier, Croisier, Jean-Louis, Dupont, Catherine, Moutschen, Michel, Ansseau, Marc, Zeevaert, Bernard, et al. (2010). Fibromyalgia and related conditions: electromyogram profile during isometric muscle contraction.. Joint bone spine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2010.02.003
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-maquet-2010-fibromyalgia-related,
author = {Maquet, Didier and Croisier, Jean-Louis and Dupont, Catherine and Moutschen, Michel and Ansseau, Marc and Zeevaert, Bernard and Crielaard, Jean-Michel},
title = {Fibromyalgia and related conditions: electromyogram profile during isometric muscle contraction.},
journal = {Joint bone spine},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1016/j.jbspin.2010.02.003},
note = {PubMed: 20417143},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maquet-2010-fibromyalgia-related},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maquet-2010-fibromyalgia-related
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