van Campen, C Linda M C, Verheugt, Freek W A, Rowe, Peter C et al. · Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine · 2021 · DOI
This study compared two different ways of measuring how much blood the heart pumps with each beat during a tilt table test (where patients lie down then are tilted upright). Researchers tested 154 ME/CFS patients and 39 healthy people using finger cuff measurements and ultrasound of the heart. They found that the finger cuff method gave higher readings than ultrasound, but after adjusting the finger cuff numbers to match ultrasound values, the device became reliable enough to track changes during tilt testing.
ME/CFS patients often show exaggerated drops in stroke volume during tilt testing, a key diagnostic finding. This study validates that finger plethysmography can be used to reliably measure these stroke volume changes if properly calibrated, making this non-invasive method more practical for clinical and research settings where ultrasound expertise may be limited.
This study does not establish that Nexfin CO Trek is accurate in isolation or suitable for all patient populations—accuracy was only validated after calibration to ultrasound. It also does not demonstrate whether stroke volume changes measured by these methods predict patient outcomes or treatment responses in ME/CFS.
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
van Campen, C Linda M C, Verheugt, Freek W A, Rowe, Peter C, & Visser, Frans C (2021). Comparison of the finger plethysmography derived stroke volumes by Nexfin CO Trek and suprasternal aortic Doppler derived stroke volume measurements in adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and in healthy controls.. Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.3233/THC-202669
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-van-campen-2021-comparison-finger,
author = {van Campen, C Linda M C and Verheugt, Freek W A and Rowe, Peter C and Visser, Frans C},
title = {Comparison of the finger plethysmography derived stroke volumes by Nexfin CO Trek and suprasternal aortic Doppler derived stroke volume measurements in adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and in healthy controls.},
journal = {Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.3233/THC-202669},
note = {PubMed: 33998565},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-campen-2021-comparison-finger},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-campen-2021-comparison-finger
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