I'm a member of the National CFIDS Foundation and just got their latest newsletter in the post. I'm sure they'll post it for free on their website in a couple of months anyway but I wanted to share some interesting things I read in it..
An article on CFIDS/ME Markers:
They listed 4 markers
1) STAT 1 Marker which is a protein that has been found abnormal in ME patients. I looked this up and annoying ly it is not available commercially, only for research.
2) Elastase which I have no idea what it is. This test for M.E was discovered by DeMeirleir.
3.) A Marker for abberant prions in CFS. It said there would be more information in the next issue. Dr DeMeirleir patented that too.
4) A chemical urine test for M.E
This got me really excited. Imagine getting this quickly diagnosed by a simple urine test. It was another DeMeirleir patent. I looked it up and was disappointed to see that in one study it only diagnosed 75% of M.E patients while the healthy controls had 4% false negative. It's not specific to ME either but to many illnesses where the TH1/TH2 part of the immune system is abnormal.
The article made a point of saying that these tests also show positive in people exposed to ionising radiation.
Another marker I know of which was not in this article is low blood volume which was researched by the same group.
Then there was an article on the latest research publications they funded.
First it talked about a drug Imatinib that is used against chronic myeloid leukaemia CML. The article sort of posits that it could help M.E. (I am not sure, I wish they would write their articles clearer.:thumbdown: )
Then it talked about the Hany Al-Shemy paper "Predicting in silico which mixtures of natural products of plants might most effectively kill human leaukaemia cells" I have not looked it up yet.
There was also a list of tests that are supposed to show abnormalities in ME patients but I don't have the energy to type out the extremely long list at the moment.
I liked the NCF for their anaeasthesia protocol, their predicting that Rituximab might help before the Norweigens nailed it and the way they dig out obscure things like trimetazidine drug patent. I wish some doctors would research this drug for ME and FM.
http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php?topic=3432.0
My only problem with them is that I wish their newletter was less wordy and more clearly written.
I just have one question - in their list of lab tests that define their NCF cohort of patients, they say "Immunoglobulin subclass deficiencies" would show abnormalities. What is this? Is it the same as a standard immunoglobulin test that every doctor does?
An article on CFIDS/ME Markers:
They listed 4 markers
1) STAT 1 Marker which is a protein that has been found abnormal in ME patients. I looked this up and annoying ly it is not available commercially, only for research.
2) Elastase which I have no idea what it is. This test for M.E was discovered by DeMeirleir.
3.) A Marker for abberant prions in CFS. It said there would be more information in the next issue. Dr DeMeirleir patented that too.
4) A chemical urine test for M.E
This got me really excited. Imagine getting this quickly diagnosed by a simple urine test. It was another DeMeirleir patent. I looked it up and was disappointed to see that in one study it only diagnosed 75% of M.E patients while the healthy controls had 4% false negative. It's not specific to ME either but to many illnesses where the TH1/TH2 part of the immune system is abnormal.
The article made a point of saying that these tests also show positive in people exposed to ionising radiation.
Another marker I know of which was not in this article is low blood volume which was researched by the same group.
Then there was an article on the latest research publications they funded.
First it talked about a drug Imatinib that is used against chronic myeloid leukaemia CML. The article sort of posits that it could help M.E. (I am not sure, I wish they would write their articles clearer.:thumbdown: )
Then it talked about the Hany Al-Shemy paper "Predicting in silico which mixtures of natural products of plants might most effectively kill human leaukaemia cells" I have not looked it up yet.
There was also a list of tests that are supposed to show abnormalities in ME patients but I don't have the energy to type out the extremely long list at the moment.
I liked the NCF for their anaeasthesia protocol, their predicting that Rituximab might help before the Norweigens nailed it and the way they dig out obscure things like trimetazidine drug patent. I wish some doctors would research this drug for ME and FM.
http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php?topic=3432.0
My only problem with them is that I wish their newletter was less wordy and more clearly written.
I just have one question - in their list of lab tests that define their NCF cohort of patients, they say "Immunoglobulin subclass deficiencies" would show abnormalities. What is this? Is it the same as a standard immunoglobulin test that every doctor does?