van Eeden, Charmaine, Mohazab, Naima, Redmond, Desiree et al. · Lancet regional health. Americas · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at fatigue in people with ANCA-vasculitis (a type of blood vessel inflammation) and found that over half met the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS. The researchers discovered that the type of vasculitis matters: people with MPO-ANCA had fatigue patterns more similar to fibromyalgia, while those with PR3-ANCA had fatigue linked to inflammation markers. This suggests different types of vasculitis may cause fatigue through different biological mechanisms.
This research highlights an important but understudied overlap between ME/CFS and vasculitis, suggesting that some patients diagnosed with vasculitis may actually have ME/CFS or comorbid conditions. Understanding that different disease mechanisms (inflammatory vs non-inflammatory) may drive fatigue in different patient subgroups could lead to more targeted, effective treatments tailored to the underlying cause rather than symptom similarity alone.
This study does not prove that ANCA-vasculitis causes ME/CFS or vice versa—it only shows they frequently co-occur. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or determine whether fatigue develops before, during, or after vasculitis diagnosis. The findings are exploratory in a relatively small cohort and require validation in larger, prospective studies before generalizing to all ME/CFS and vasculitis populations.
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 Eeden, Charmaine, Mohazab, Naima, Redmond, Desiree, Yacyshyn, Elaine, Clifford, Alison, Russell, Anthony S, et al. (2023). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia: PR3-versus MPO-ANCA-associated vasculitis, an exploratory cross-sectional study.. Lancet regional health. Americas. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2023.100460
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-van-eeden-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {van Eeden, Charmaine and Mohazab, Naima and Redmond, Desiree and Yacyshyn, Elaine and Clifford, Alison and Russell, Anthony S and Osman, Mohammed S and Cohen Tervaert, Jan Willem},
title = {Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia: PR3-versus MPO-ANCA-associated vasculitis, an exploratory cross-sectional study.},
journal = {Lancet regional health. Americas},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1016/j.lana.2023.100460},
note = {PubMed: 36890852},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-eeden-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-eeden-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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