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Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Immunological Investigations, vol. 26, pages 269-273, 1997.

Summary

This brief review of chronic fatigue syndrome addresses the evidence from the Atlanta case-control study that CFS appears to resolve into two main sub-types - sudden onset and gradual onset CFS, and the differences immune system markers that were observed between the two types. The author speculates about the possibility that sudden onset CFS might have an infectious disease onset, while gradual onset CFS may be triggered by factors such as physical environment or stress.

Abstract

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has emerged as a public health concern over the past decade. A working case definition was created in 1988 and revised in 1994, and this has been used to establish prevalence estimates using physician-based surveillance and a random digit dial telephone survey. Although CFS has some characteristics of an infectious disease, so far no infectious agent has been associated with the illness. Studies of immune function in CFS patients failed to detect differences between cases and healthy controls. However, when cases were subgrouped according to whether they had a sudden or gradual onset, differences in immunologic markers were detected between cases and their matched controls.

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