Tsai, Shin-Yi, Lin, Cheng-Li, Shih, Shou-Chuan et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2018 · DOI
This study found that people who suffer burn injuries have a higher chance of developing ME/CFS later on. Researchers looked at over 17,000 people in Taiwan who had burn injuries and compared them to a similar group without burns. Those with burns were about 1.5 times more likely to develop ME/CFS, and burns in visible areas like the face and arms had a stronger link to ME/CFS than burns on the trunk.
This study strengthens the evidence that ME/CFS can develop following acute systemic insults, supporting post-viral and post-injury pathophysiology hypotheses. Understanding risk factors for ME/CFS development following identifiable triggers like burn injury may help clinicians identify high-risk patients for early intervention and monitoring.
This study cannot establish causation or explain the biological mechanisms linking burn injury to ME/CFS—it only shows an association. The findings cannot determine whether burn-related stress, inflammation, infection, or other factors directly trigger ME/CFS, nor can they explain why some burn patients develop ME/CFS while others do not. Administrative database coding may not capture clinically confirmed ME/CFS cases with strict diagnostic criteria.
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
Tsai, Shin-Yi, Lin, Cheng-Li, Shih, Shou-Chuan, Hsu, Cheng-Wei, Leong, Kam-Hang, Kuo, Chien-Feng, et al. (2018). Increased risk of chronic fatigue syndrome following burn injuries.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-018-1713-2
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-tsai-2018-increased-risk,
author = {Tsai, Shin-Yi and Lin, Cheng-Li and Shih, Shou-Chuan and Hsu, Cheng-Wei and Leong, Kam-Hang and Kuo, Chien-Feng and Lio, Chon-Fu and Chen, Yu-Tien and Hung, Yan-Jiun and Shi, Leiyu},
title = {Increased risk of chronic fatigue syndrome following burn injuries.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-018-1713-2},
note = {PubMed: 30518392},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tsai-2018-increased-risk},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tsai-2018-increased-risk
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