Pietrangelo, Tiziana, Cagnin, Stefano, Bondi, Danilo et al. · Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2024 · DOI
This review examines what we know about ME/CFS by focusing on problems in muscles and how the body uses energy. Researchers looked at existing research to understand why ME/CFS causes severe tiredness and muscle problems. The authors suggest that studying muscle tissue more closely might help doctors diagnose ME/CFS better and develop new treatments.
Understanding muscle and metabolic problems in ME/CFS is crucial because it could lead to reliable diagnostic tests and new treatments that don't currently exist. This review becomes especially important given the increased attention to ME/CFS following COVID-19, helping distinguish ME/CFS from long-COVID and clarifying the biological basis of the disease.
This review does not prove that muscle dysfunction is the sole cause of ME/CFS—it identifies it as a significant factor among multiple potential contributors. The study does not establish new diagnostic tests or treatments directly; rather, it identifies muscle tissue as a promising avenue for future research. As a review of existing evidence, it cannot generate new primary data and is limited by the methodological quality of previously published studies.
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
Pietrangelo, Tiziana, Cagnin, Stefano, Bondi, Danilo, Santangelo, Carmen, Marramiero, Lorenzo, Purcaro, Cristina, et al. (2024). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome from current evidence to new diagnostic perspectives through skeletal muscle and metabolic disturbances.. Acta physiologica (Oxford, England). https://doi.org/10.1111/apha.14122
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-pietrangelo-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Pietrangelo, Tiziana and Cagnin, Stefano and Bondi, Danilo and Santangelo, Carmen and Marramiero, Lorenzo and Purcaro, Cristina and Bonadio, Raphael Severino and Di Filippo, Ester Sara and Mancinelli, Rosa and Fulle, Stefania and Verratti, Vittore and Cheng, Xuanhong},
title = {Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome from current evidence to new diagnostic perspectives through skeletal muscle and metabolic disturbances.},
journal = {Acta physiologica (Oxford, England)},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1111/apha.14122},
note = {PubMed: 38483046},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pietrangelo-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pietrangelo-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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