(Press-News.org) OAK BROOK, Ill. – Researchers using a combination of different imaging techniques have found structural abnormalities in the brains of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The results suggest a potential role for imaging in diagnosing and treating the condition.
CFS is characterized by profound fatigue and "brain fog" that do not improve with bed rest, lasting for at least six months. The condition affects more than 1 million adults and children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diagnosis is complicated and usually involves ruling out many other conditions. There is no standalone test to diagnose CFS.
"This is a very common and debilitating disease," said the study lead author Michael M. Zeineh, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. "It's very frustrating for patients, because they feel tired and are experiencing difficulty thinking, and the science has yet to determine what has gone wrong."
For the new study, Dr. Zeineh worked with a Stanford CFS and infectious disease expert, Jose G. Montoya, M.D., to perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 15 CFS patients and 14 age- and gender-matched controls. They applied three different MRI techniques: volumetric analysis to measure the size of different compartments of the brain, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess the integrity of the signal-carrying white matter tracts of the brain, and arterial spin labeling (ASL) to measure blood flow.
When they compared results between the CFS patients and the controls, they found that the CFS group had slightly lower white matter volume, meaning there was less overall white matter in the brain. The CFS group also had abnormally high fractional anisotropy (FA) values—a DTI measure of the diffusion of water— in a specific white matter tract called the right arcuate fasciculus, suggesting something was going on in the white matter in the right hemisphere.
"Within CFS patients, right anterior arcuate FA increased with disease severity," Dr. Zeineh said. "The differences correlated with their fatigue—the more abnormal the tract, the worse the fatigue."
The results suggest that FA at the right arcuate fasciculus may serve as a biomarker for CFS that can help track the disease.
The imaging study also found abnormalities among CFS patients at the two points in the brain that connect the right arcuate fasciculus. Each connection point, known as a cortex, was thicker in CFS patients.
"This is the first study to look at white matter tracts in CFS and correlate them with cortical findings," Dr. Zeineh said. "It's not something you could see with conventional imaging."
Although the study involved only 15 CFS patients, the technique already shows tremendous promise as a diagnostic tool for identifying people with CFS, according to Dr. Zeineh.
"We used automated techniques to look at these tracts and were able to achieve 80 percent accuracy for CFS detection," he said.
Dr. Zeineh added that the findings need to be replicated and expanded upon in future studies to refine understanding of the relationship between brain structure and CFS.
INFORMATION:
"Right Arcuate Fasciculus Abnormality in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome." Collaborating with Drs. Zeineh and Montoya were James Kang, M.D., Scott W. Atlas, M.D., Mira M. Raman, M.S., Allan L. Reiss, M.D., Jane L Norris, P.A., and Ian Valencia, B.S.
Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.
RSNA is an association of more than 53,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
For patient-friendly information on MRI of the brain, visit RadiologyInfo.orgRadiologyInfo.org.
Celebrate International Day of Radiology
November 8, 2014 – the 119th anniversary of the X-ray
The International Day of Radiology is building greater awareness of the value that radiology research, diagnosis and treatment contribute to safe patient care, and better understanding of the vital role radiologists perform in healthcare delivery. This year's theme is brain imaging. Visit IDOR 2014 to learn more.
An imaging study by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators has found distinct differences between the brains of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and those of healthy people.
The findings could lead to more definitive diagnoses of the syndrome and may also point to an underlying mechanism in the disease process.
It's not uncommon for CFS patients to face several mischaracterizations of their condition, or even suspicions of hypochondria, before receiving a diagnosis of CFS. The abnormalities identified in the study, to be published Oct. 29 in Radiology, ...
A new study has found that certain prostate cancer medications are linked with an increased risk of dying from heart-related causes in men with congestive heart failure or prior heart attacks. Published in BJU International, the findings will help doctors and patients weigh the benefits and risks of the drugs.
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which reduces levels of male hormones in the body to prevent them from stimulating cancer cells, is a mainstay of treatment for prostate cancer. Despite its anticancer effects, ADT has been associated with heart problems, including ...
SAN FRANCISCO: A simplified frailty index created by surgeons at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Mich., is a reliable tool for assessing risk of mortality and serious complications in older patients considering total hip and knee replacement procedures, according to new study findings presented today at the 2014 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.
As more seniors stay healthier longer, elective operations such as hip and knee replace-ments are becoming more common. Traditionally, a person's eligibility for surgery has been based ...
SAN FRANCISCO: Delayed treatment for appendicitis can often lead to a ruptured appendix. That's exactly what is more likely to happen to many children in North Carolina if they have to delay getting treatment because of poor access to general surgeons, according to new study findings presented this week at the American College of Surgeons 2014 Clinical Congress.
Appendicitis is a common condition, but previous research has shown that complications from the condition may be directly tied to living in an area without enough general surgeons. Findings from a May 2014 ...
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Enterovirus. Tuberculosis. Cholera. Measles. Various strains of the flu and hepatitis. The number of infectious disease outbreaks and the number of unique illnesses causing them appear to be increasing around the globe, according to a new Brown University analysis of more than 12,000 outbreaks affecting 44 million people worldwide over the last 33 years.
Menacing as that may sound, these preliminary findings also reveal an encouraging trend. On a per capita basis, the impact of the outbreaks is declining. In other words, even ...
Scientists have long sought to identify the specific DNA changes that can trigger new traits, allowing species to adapt. But when animals develop a new trait, are the mutations within the part of the DNA that makes proteins, or, in the master switches that control the gene, modulating its activity to turn on or off?
For development of the embryo, it is usually the master control regions of a gene that dominate, but what about in an adult?
Jasper et al. found that adults play by a different set of rules, relying on the contributions of novel genes---called taxonomically ...
And you thought the sexual battles between people could get weird and fierce? Try ants. In a new study, biologists at the University of Vermont have discovered some queen ants that make sexual bondage into a life and death fight.
In a discovery new to science, their research shows that sexual conflict between two species can drive an evolutionary bedroom-battle royal, leading to competing adaptations in which female ants of one species manage to manhandle sperm away from the unwitting males of a different species during intercourse. The study was published in the October ...
A high milk intake in women and men is not accompanied by a lower risk of fracture and instead may be associated with a higher rate of death, suggests observational research published in The BMJ this week.
This may be explained by the high levels of lactose and galactose (types of sugar) in milk, that have been shown to increase oxidative stress and chronic inflammation in animal studies, say the researchers.
However, they point out that their study can only show an association and cannot prove cause and effect. They say the results "should be interpreted ...
Richard Wakeford, Life Fellow at Hughes Hall in the University of Cambridge, warns that the NHS needs more GPs immediately – and that without a complete reorganisation of student recruitment, medical schools "will continue to overproduce graduates inclined to hospital specialties and research."
Workforce reports show that we need at least half of UK medical graduates to become GPs, yet UK medical schools "are not recruiting students with this career inclination in anything like sufficient numbers," he writes.
He points out that Labour has announced plans for 8,000 ...
The systematic neglect of culture is the single biggest barrier to advancing the highest attainable standard of health worldwide, say the authors of a major new report on culture and health, led by Professor David Napier, a leading medical anthropologist from University College London (UCL), UK, and published in The Lancet.
Bringing together experts from many different fields, including anthropologists, social scientists, and medics, the Commission is the first ever detailed appraisal of the role of culture in health. The authors argue that cultures of all kinds – ...
