Hornig/Lipkin cytokine study out now - press release

[Cheshire]

Prof Michael Sharpe, Professor of Psychological Medicine, University of Oxford, said: “Whilst this finding that some patients with CFS/ME have an immune abnormality is potentially interesting, we should treat it with great caution.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...roof-that-ME-is-real-found-by-scientists.html

 

[worldbackwards]

Great timing whilst the IOM thing is still in the news!

Reuters
Study on biology of chronic fatigue illness stirs debate
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/27/us-health-chronicfatigue-idUSKBN0LV2BH20150227

Michael Sharpe, a professor of psychological medicine, at Britain's Oxford University said the finding was "potentially interesting" but added: "This type of study (a case-control study) is notorious for producing findings that other researchers subsequently fail to replicate."

Or: "Release the hounds, Smithers"

 

[Roy S]

"Patients’ stress levels were standardized; before each blood draw, patients were asked to complete standardized paperwork, in part to engender fatigue."
　
That could be a good statement for healthcare providers.
　
.

 

[helperofearth123]

Horray!

 

[Sasha]

The Telegraph (UK)
First biological proof that ME is real found by scientists
Columbia University has found that changes to the immune system represent ‘the first robust physical evidence’ that ME is a biological illness rather than a psychological disorder...

Thanks, wdb, I got a comment on there.

Join in, folks!

 

[MeSci]

UK Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...e-syndrome-has-biological-cause-10075856.html

Oh dear - the usual 'tired woman' photo, and a link to the Kings College London Chalder exercise crap.

 

[shannah]

"First biological proof"? Really?

Drives me crazy! How many times have we heard that???

 

[greeneagledown]

Some thoughts:
- Interesting that they found lower cytokines in longer duration patients than in controls. When the preliminary data was first reported awhile ago, I thought they said that controls and longer duration patients had similar levels.
- Why isn't C-Reactive Protein and/or sed rate elevated in short-duration patients if they have so much cytokine inflammation? Makes me wonder if maybe these two tests don't measure inflammation as effectively as has traditionally been thought.
- Some interesting tie-ins (ties-in?) to B cell maturation, which might support the autoimmune theory being explored in Norway and the UK.

 

[A.B.]

This says more than words.

 

[Sushi]

Oh dear - the usual 'tired woman' photo, and a link to the Kings College London Chalder exercise crap.

We need to get @adreno's avatar photo out there in stock photos for ME/CFS/SEID!

on the beach

 

[halcyon]

This says more than words.

It does, and it also sheds light on a lot of other studies that seem to have contradictory findings, with some finding a certain cytokine high and another finding the same cytokine low. All future research into this disease is going to have to take length of illness into account now.

 

[Kati]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...roof-that-ME-is-real-found-by-scientists.html

Why on earth did Reuter first went to the Devil? Is what I want to know.

 

[adreno]

We need to get @adreno's avatar photo out there in stock photos for ME/CFS/SEID!

I stole it from a blog somewhere...

 

[Simon]

Planning to geek my way through the paper, but will drop at some point.

Sorry, we did try to have separate threads for the paper itself and news discussion but they got merged. So you'll have to put up with my tedious detail here.

General linear model (GLM) and t-test follow-up comparison of all ME/CFS cases (short and long duration combined, n = 298) with controls (n = 348) yielded few significant results, with cases showing lower levels for most analytes

So this is a surprise: not much difference between cases and controls. There was a pattern of slightlly higher levels in patients than controls, but not much to shout about.

By contrast, the same statistical approach showed many significant differences between short and long duration patients, which is the key new finding of this study.

 

[worldbackwards]

This says more than words.

It would do if I had the faintest idea what it meant!

 

[Sushi]

This says more than words.

It is interesting that in all but a few of the markers the long term patients were lower than the controls. They mentioned avenues for early intervention when cytokines were high--what about the "after 3 year" group? Anyone see anything from them suggesting avenues of treatment?

Sushi

 

[A.B.]

It is interesting that in all but a few of the markers the long term patients were lower than the controls. They mentioned avenues for early intervention when cytokines were high--what about the "after 3 year" group? Anyone see anything from them suggesting avenues of treatment?

Sushi

They measured 51 cytokines, but figure 1 only shows 24. I'm guessing they're only showing the ones that are interesting.

 

[Simon]

They also found different patterns between short and long duration patients

early ME/CFS cases had a prominent activation of both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines as well as a dissociation of characteristic intercytokine regulatory networks

Long duration patients were much like controls, with similar 'cytokine networks', and cytokines that were up in short duration patients were often down in long duration patients.

 

[SDSue]

Reuters
Study on biology of chronic fatigue illness stirs debate
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/27/us-health-chronicfatigue-idUSKBN0LV2BH20150227

What a crappy headline.

 

[adreno]

So this is a surprise: not much difference between cases and controls. There was a pattern of slightlly higher levels in patients than controls, but not much to shout about.

Not really a surprise, as the short duration (high cytokines) and long duration (low cytokines) cancel each other out when combined.

So between-group differences were small, whereas within-group differences were significant.