van Campen, C Linda M C, Rowe, Peter C, Visser, Frans C · Frontiers in pediatrics · 2018 · DOI
This study measured the amount of blood circulating in the bodies of 20 adults with ME/CFS and found that those with symptoms of dizziness or lightheadedness when standing up had significantly less blood volume than those without these symptoms. On average, all ME/CFS patients had about 11 milliliters less blood per kilogram of body weight than expected, but the drop was much more pronounced in patients with orthostatic symptoms. This finding suggests that reduced blood volume may be connected to specific symptoms some ME/CFS patients experience.
Understanding the relationship between blood volume reduction and orthostatic symptoms could help clinicians identify which ME/CFS patients might benefit from blood volume-expanding interventions, potentially improving a debilitating symptom for many patients. This study provides objective evidence that blood volume abnormalities in ME/CFS are not uniform across all patients but correlate with specific symptoms, suggesting a biologically meaningful subgroup that warrants further investigation.
This study does not prove that reduced blood volume causes orthostatic symptoms—it only shows a correlation between the two. The findings cannot be generalized to all ME/CFS patients due to the small sample size (n=20) and selection of consecutive patients, which may not represent the broader ME/CFS population. The study also does not establish whether blood volume reduction is a primary cause of ME/CFS or a secondary consequence of the disease.
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 →
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