Murrough, James W, Mao, Xiangling, Collins, Katherine A et al. · NMR in biomedicine · 2010 · DOI
This study used a special type of brain imaging called MRI to measure a substance called lactate in the fluid around the brain of people with ME/CFS. The researchers found that people with ME/CFS had significantly higher lactate levels compared to healthy people and people with depression. Interestingly, people with depression had normal lactate levels, suggesting this finding may be specific to ME/CFS and not just a symptom of mental illness.
This study provides objective neurobiological evidence that ME/CFS involves measurable brain metabolite abnormalities distinct from major depression, helping to establish ME/CFS as a biological illness rather than purely psychiatric. The correlation between lactate and mental fatigue severity suggests a potential biomarker that could eventually aid in diagnosis and monitoring of disease severity.
This study does not prove that elevated lactate causes ME/CFS symptoms or that it is the primary mechanism of the disease. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality, only association. Small sample sizes (17 CFS subjects) limit generalizability, and the findings require replication in larger, well-characterized cohorts before clinical application.
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
Murrough, James W, Mao, Xiangling, Collins, Katherine A, Kelly, Chris, Andrade, Gizely, Nestadt, Paul, et al. (2010). Increased ventricular lactate in chronic fatigue syndrome measured by 1H MRS imaging at 3.0 T. II: comparison with major depressive disorder.. NMR in biomedicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.1512
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-murrough-2010-increased-ventricular,
author = {Murrough, James W and Mao, Xiangling and Collins, Katherine A and Kelly, Chris and Andrade, Gizely and Nestadt, Paul and Levine, Susan M and Mathew, Sanjay J and Shungu, Dikoma C},
title = {Increased ventricular lactate in chronic fatigue syndrome measured by 1H MRS imaging at 3.0 T. II: comparison with major depressive disorder.},
journal = {NMR in biomedicine},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1002/nbm.1512},
note = {PubMed: 20661876},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/murrough-2010-increased-ventricular},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/murrough-2010-increased-ventricular
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.