Naschitz, J E, Rozenbaum, M, Rosner, I et al. · The Journal of rheumatology · 2001
This study compared how the bodies of people with fibromyalgia and ME/CFS respond to standing up from lying down. Researchers measured blood pressure and heart rate while patients lay down and then tilted upright for 30 minutes. They found that fibromyalgia and ME/CFS patients had very different cardiovascular responses to this position change, suggesting these are two distinct conditions rather than the same illness.
This study challenges the idea that fibromyalgia and ME/CFS share the same underlying physiological abnormality, which has important implications for understanding ME/CFS pathophysiology and developing targeted treatments. Understanding how ME/CFS differs from other chronic conditions helps establish its distinct biological basis and prevents misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment approaches.
This study does not prove that fibromyalgia and ME/CFS are completely separate diseases—only that their cardiovascular responses during tilt differ. It does not establish the cause of these differences, whether they are primary disease mechanisms or secondary effects, or whether other physiological systems show similar or different patterns of divergence.
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
Naschitz, J E, Rozenbaum, M, Rosner, I, Sabo, E, Priselac, R M, Shaviv, N, et al. (2001). Cardiovascular response to upright tilt in fibromyalgia differs from that in chronic fatigue syndrome.. The Journal of rheumatology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11409131/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-naschitz-2001-cardiovascular-response,
author = {Naschitz, J E and Rozenbaum, M and Rosner, I and Sabo, E and Priselac, R M and Shaviv, N and Ahdoot, A and Ahdoot, M and Gaitini, L and Eldar, S and Yeshurun, D},
title = {Cardiovascular response to upright tilt in fibromyalgia differs from that in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {The Journal of rheumatology},
year = {2001},
note = {PubMed: 11409131},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/naschitz-2001-cardiovascular-response},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/naschitz-2001-cardiovascular-response
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