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The maintained attention assessment in patients affected by ME/CFS: a reliable biomarker? (Murga et al., 2021)

Pyrrhus

Senior Member
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The maintained attention assessment in patients affected by ME/CFS: a reliable biomarker? (Murga et al., 2021)
https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-03153-1

Excerpt:
Murga et al. 2021 said:
The maintained attention is the cause of great functional limitations in CFS/ME, a disease that mainly affects women in the central period of life.

Cognitive function is explored using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the maintained attention using the Toulouse-Piéron test with which the Global Index of Attention and Perception (GIAP) is obtained, the fatigue using the visual analog scale and the perception of effort using the modified Borg scale. The final sample were 84 patients (66 women/18 men) who met diagnostic criteria (Fukuda-1994, Carruthers-2011) and 22 healthy controls (14 women/8 men).

Most of patients maintain normal cognitive function, showing low or very low attention score in the 70% of patients with a marked cognitive fatigue compared to the control group (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between genders in GIAP or fatigue for CFS/ME; however, sick women perceive cognitive effort higher than men. Deficits in sustained attention and the perception of fatigue, so effort after performing the proposed test are a sensitive and reliable indicator that allows us to substantiate a clinical suspicion and refer patients for further studies in order to confirm or rule out CFS/ME.
 
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I was one of the subjects in this study. By the time I started the Toulouse-Piéron test I was pretty fatigued cognitively. But I thought, "Oh, this is easy!".
A couple of days later I checked what I circled and discovered I missed so many. I didn't want to calculate my score, but I'm sure it was pretty horrible.

So yeah, bad maintained attention.
 

pattismith

Senior Member
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3,931
The maintained attention assessment in patients affected by Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a reliable biomarker? | Journal of Translational Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)


Published: 04 December 2021


Abstract

The maintained attention is the cause of great functional limitations in CFS/ME, a disease that mainly affects women in the central period of life.

Cognitive function is explored using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the maintained attention using the Toulouse-Piéron test with which the Global Index of Attention and Perception (GIAP) is obtained, the fatigue using the visual analog scale and the perception of effort using the modified Borg scale.

The final sample were 84 patients (66 women/18 men) who met diagnostic criteria (Fukuda-1994, Carruthers-2011) and 22 healthy controls (14 women/8 men).

Most of patients maintain normal cognitive function, showing low or very low attention score in the 70% of patients with a marked cognitive fatigue compared to the control group (p < 0.05).

There were no significant differences between genders in GIAP or fatigue for CFS/ME; however, sick women perceive cognitive effort higher than men.

Deficits in sustained attention and the perception of fatigue, so effort after performing the proposed test are a sensitive and reliable indicator that allows us to substantiate a clinical suspicion and refer patients for further studies in order to confirm or rule out CFS/ME.
 

Rebeccare

Moose Enthusiast
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This is fascinating! Although I think a much larger study would have to be done before considering this to be a kind of biomarker.

But it certainly lines up with my own neuropsych testing experiences, in which my lowest scores--generally a standard deviation or more below my other scores--were in measures of attention/concentration and delayed recall.

My mathematical reasoning score was also terrible, but alas I was terrible at that even before I got sick so I can't blame ME/CFS...:xeyes:
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
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2,997
using the modified Borg scale
Those who are Star Trek fans will understand this:
If we were assimilated would we gain the energy/strength of a normal drone or would we destroy the Borg by giving the entire collective ME/CFS?
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
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2,997
The borg would repair their damage drone by studying the disease and fixing it. Unlike humans the borg believe their fellow Borg when they say they are unwell.
Perhaps but they also eliminate drones that are too damaged.

But in our case it should be curable so you would be correct.
Also the entire collective would put their bairns into finding a treatment so it should be a rather short period before they find the treatment.

Also by then Starfleet will have a cure so we could just go to sickbay and get a hypospray.
 

Treeman

Senior Member
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774
Location
York, England
Unlike humans the borg believe their fellow Borg when they say they are unwell.

They have a collective hive mind so they would believe we had ME/CFS as they would feel it.

Also by then Starfleet will have a cure so we could just go to sickbay and get a hypospray

How I wish for a tricorder and 23rd Centaury advanced technology where they scan me and give me a hypospray and I'm as good again! I'm also convinced as they transport me it will scan me and exclude the ME/CFS problem and we I arrive I'm whole again. Beam me up Scotty.
 

L'engle

moogle
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Canada
Most of patients maintain normal cognitive function, showing low or very low attention score in the 70% of patients with a marked cognitive fatigue compared to the control group (p < 0.05).


Ok, I'm tired while reading this but 'maintain normal cognitive function' and 'show very low attention score' sound like opposites to me. Are they saying the paitents functioned normally or that they didn't?
 

Rebeccare

Moose Enthusiast
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Location
Massachusetts
would we destroy the Borg by giving the entire collective ME/CFS?
I'm leaning towards this, given what happened to the Borg when Hugh was sent back

I'm tired while reading this but 'maintain normal cognitive function' and 'show very low attention score' sound like opposites to me. Are they saying the paitents functioned normally or that they didn't?
Yes! That is, both. It's kind of like when someone has a learning disability. Their overall scores of cognitive function are in the normal range, but their scores in specific areas--in our case, the area of attention and concentration--are significantly lower.

For this study they did one test of overall cognitive function, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is generally used to screen for mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults. This test assesses more than just memory and attention, though--it includes tests of executive function, visuospatial ability, abstract reasoning, language, etc. I imagine that the MoCA was used for this study instead of a more thorough IQ test because it only takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, instead of several hours.

Almost all of the participants with ME/CFS had scores in the normal range on this test (albeit lower scores on average than the healthy controls). But in spite of those normal scores, the same people later scored poorly on another test which focused solely on concentration and sustained attention. It's a monotonous and fiddly test which will make your eyes cross!

So what they're saying is that people with ME/CFS, in spite of having normal cognitive abilities, have abnormally low capacity to maintain attention.