Lanham, R J · Clinical laboratory science : journal of the American Society for Medical Technology · 1994
This review examined what we know about ME/CFS, a condition characterized by extreme tiredness, pain, and thinking difficulties that come and go in cycles. While researchers don't yet know what causes ME/CFS, studies show that people with this condition often have unusual immune system test results. Currently, there is no single blood test or marker that can definitively diagnose ME/CFS, so doctors treat symptoms based on what each patient experiences.
This study underscores a critical challenge in ME/CFS medicine: the absence of a specific diagnostic test forces clinicians to rely on symptom recognition and exclusion of other conditions. Understanding that immune abnormalities are consistently observed helps validate that ME/CFS involves real biological changes, supporting patients who have faced diagnostic skepticism.
This review does not identify the actual cause of ME/CFS or prove that any particular immune abnormality directly causes the disease—it only documents associations. The study also does not establish which immune markers are most clinically useful or how they relate to disease severity and prognosis. Being a 1994 review, it does not include subsequent decades of research findings.
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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