Tölle, Markus, Freitag, Helma, Antelmann, Michaela et al. · Journal of clinical medicine · 2020 · DOI
This study tested a blood-cleaning treatment called immunoadsorption (IA) on five ME/CFS patients who had previously improved with this therapy. About two years later, they received the treatment again using a slightly modified approach. Four of the five patients showed improvement in their symptoms that lasted 6-12 months, and the treatment was well tolerated with no serious side effects.
This study provides preliminary evidence that immunoadsorption may be an effective, tolerable treatment for a subset of ME/CFS patients, particularly those with β₂AR-antibodies. If validated in larger controlled trials, IA could offer a potential therapeutic option for patients with this debilitating autoimmune-mediated disease.
This small pilot study does not establish that IA is effective for all ME/CFS patients or prove that β₂AR-antibodies are the cause of ME/CFS in general. It also cannot determine whether symptom improvement was due to IA treatment, natural recovery, placebo effect, or other unmeasured factors, as there was no control group or blinding.
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
Tölle, Markus, Freitag, Helma, Antelmann, Michaela, Hartwig, Jelka, Schuchardt, Mirjam, van der Giet, Markus, et al. (2020). Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Efficacy of Repeat Immunoadsorption.. Journal of clinical medicine. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9082443
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-tlle-2020-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Tölle, Markus and Freitag, Helma and Antelmann, Michaela and Hartwig, Jelka and Schuchardt, Mirjam and van der Giet, Markus and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Grabowski, Patricia and Scheibenbogen, Carmen},
title = {Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Efficacy of Repeat Immunoadsorption.},
journal = {Journal of clinical medicine},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3390/jcm9082443},
note = {PubMed: 32751659},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tlle-2020-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tlle-2020-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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