Ichise, M, Salit, I E, Abbey, S E et al. · Nuclear medicine communications · 1992
This study used a special brain imaging technique called SPECT to measure blood flow in different regions of the brain in ME/CFS patients and healthy controls. Researchers found that most ME/CFS patients (80%) had reduced blood flow in several brain areas compared to healthy people, particularly in the front, side, and back regions of the brain. This provides the first objective evidence that ME/CFS may involve changes in how blood flows to the brain.
This was among the first studies to provide objective, imaging-based evidence that ME/CFS involves measurable changes in brain blood flow, supporting the biological basis of the illness. The findings help validate ME/CFS as a neurological condition rather than a purely psychiatric disorder, which is important for patient recognition and research funding.
This study does not prove that reduced brain blood flow causes ME/CFS symptoms, only that the two are associated. The study cannot determine whether blood flow changes are primary to the disease or a consequence of it, nor whether they are specific to ME/CFS or present in other conditions. The authors themselves note these findings are not diagnostic of 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 →
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