Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0015674 (chronic fatigue syndrome)
 2,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Aberrations of CVR (cardiovascular reactivity), an expression of autonomic function, lack specificity for a particular disorder. Recently, a CVR pattern particular to chronic fatigue syndrome has been observed. In the present study, we aimed to develop methodologies for assessing disease-specific CVR patterns. As a prototype, a population of 50 consecutive patients with FMF (familial Mediterranean fever) was studied and compared with control populations. A 10 min supine/30 min head-up tilt test with recording of the heart rate and blood pressure or the pulse transit time was performed. Five studies were conducted applying different methods. In each study, statistical analysis identified independent predictors of CVR in FMF. Based on regression coefficients of these predictors, a linear DS (discriminant score) was computed for every subject. Each study established an equation to assess CVR, calculate DS for FMF and determine the sensitivity and specificity of the DS cut-off. In each of the five studies, abnormal CVR was observed in FMF patients. The best accuracy (88% sensitivity and 90.1% specificity for FMF) was obtained by a method based on beat-to-beat heart rate and pulse transit time recordings. Data was processed by fractal and recurrence quantitative analysis with recordings in FMF patients compared with a mixed control population. Identification of disease-specific CVR patterns was possible with the methodologies described in the present study. In FMF, disease-specific CVR may be explained by the interplay between neuroendocrine loops specific to FMF with cardiovascular homoeostatic mechanisms. Recognition of disease-specific CVR patterns may advance the understanding of homoeostatic mechanisms and have implications in clinical practice.
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PMID:Search for disease-specific cardiovascular reactivity patterns: developing the methodology. 1533 Jul 54

The authors' purpose in this study was to compare the perception of fatigue severity as measured by different fatigue questionnaires. The authors evaluated 3 groups of patients in a cross-sectional study: chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, n = 20), non-CFS fatigue (n = 20), and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF n = 25). In addition, the authors tracked 7 patients with CFS longitudinally for severity of fatigue. The severity of fatigue-related symptoms was assessed with 2 questionnaires: the unidimensional Chalder's Fatigue Severity Scale (CH) and the composite Fatigue Impact Scale (FI) which has 3 subscales--cognitive, physical, and social--and a total score. In the cross-sectional study, correlations between CH and FI cognitive scores were r = .78 (p < .0001), CH versus FI physical scores r = .603 (p < .0001), CH versus FI social scores r = .66 (p < .0001), and CH versus FI total scores r = .74 (p < .0001). In the longitudinal survey of CFS patients, the authors compared 30 questionnaires revealing correlations of CH versus FI cognitive scores r = .64 (p = .0004), CH versus FI physical r = .68 (p = .0001), CH versus FI social r = .87 (p < .0001), and CH versus FI total r = .90 (p < .0001). Fatigue severity as assessed by the unidimensional CH scale and the composite FI scale is comparable. The simple CH scale may be adequate for the assessment of the feeling of fatigue, in general, and for monitoring the severity of fatigue in CFS, in particular.
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PMID:The feeling of fatigue--fatigue severity by unidimensional versus composite questionnaires. 1536 97