Puri, B K, Gunatilake, K D R, Fernando, K A C et al. · The Journal of international medical research · 2011 · DOI
Researchers examined the chests of 42 people with ME/CFS and 20 healthy people to look for physical signs. They found that 81% of people with ME/CFS had tenderness (pain when touched) in a specific area on the left side of their rib cage, while none of the healthy people had this tenderness. This suggests there may be a consistent physical finding that doctors could potentially use to help identify ME/CFS.
This study identifies a potential objective physical sign associated with ME/CFS, which is valuable given the disease's lack of established biomarkers. If confirmed in larger, blinded studies, such a finding could aid clinical diagnosis and potentially provide insights into underlying pathophysiology, particularly regarding lymphatic or cardiovascular dysfunction.
This study does not prove that left intercostal space tenderness causes ME/CFS or is specific to the disease. The finding is observational and correlational; the proposed mechanism involving lymphatic dysfunction is speculative and requires confirmation through imaging and mechanistic studies. A single positive finding in one small study requires replication before clinical adoption.
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 →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →