yes, Recovery, there are lesions specific to ME. Small spots on frontal lobes, I think.
Lange G, DeLuca J, Maldjian JA, Lee H, Tiersky LA, Natelson BH. "Brain MRI abnormalities exist in a subset of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome." J Neurol Sci. 1999 Dec 1;171(1):3-7. PMID:
10567042
The CFS-No Psych group showed a significantly larger number of brain abnormalities on T2 weighted images than the CFS-Psych and HC groups. Cerebral changes in the CFS-No Psych group consisted mostly of small, punctate, subcortical white matter hyperintensities, found predominantly in the frontal lobes. No significant difference was found when both CFS groups were combined and compared to the HC group. The use of stratification techniques is an important strategy in understanding the pathophysiology of CFS. This frontal lobe pathology could explain the more severe cognitive impairment previously reported in this subset of CFS patients.
Cook DB, Lange G, DeLuca J, Natelson BH. "Relationship of brain MRI abnormalities and physical functional status in chronic fatigue syndrome." Int J Neurosci. 2001 Mar;107(1-2):1-6. PMID:
11328679
These results demonstrate that the presence of brain abnormalities in CFS are significantly related to subjective reports of physical function and that CFS subjects with MRI brain abnormalities report being more physically impaired than those patients without brain abnormalities.
Dickinson CJ. "Chronic fatigue syndrome--aetiological aspects." Eur J Clin Invest. 1997 Apr;27(4):257-67. Review. PMID:
9134372
Studies by modern imaging techniques have not been entirely consistent, but many magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies already suggest that small discrete patchy brain stem and subcortical lesions can often be seen in CFS. Regional blood flow studies by single photon-emission computerized tomography (SPECT) have been more consistent. They have revealed blood flow reductions in many regions, especially in the hind brain. Similar lesions have been reported after poliomyelitis and in multiple sclerosis--in both of which conditions chronic fatigue is characteristically present. In the well-known post-polio fatigue syndrome, lesions predominate in the RAS of the brain stem. If similar underlying lesions in the RAS can eventually be identified in CFS, the therapeutic target for CFS would be better defined than it is at present. A number of logical approaches to treatment can already be envisaged.
[this from St. Barts ?! evidently that is not solely a bastion of ignorance]
Schwartz RB, Garada BM, Komaroff AL, Tice HM, Gleit M, Jolesz FA, Holman BL. "Detection of intracranial abnormalities in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: comparison of MR imaging and SPECT." AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1994 Apr;162(4):935-41. PMID:
8141020
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixteen patients who fulfilled the Centers for Disease Control, British, and/or Australian criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome had MR and SPECT examinations within a 10-week period.
RESULTS: MR abnormalities consisted of foci of T2-bright signal in the periventricular and subcortical white matter and in the centrum semiovale; there were 2.06 foci per patient, vs 0.80 foci per control subject. MR abnormalities were present in eight (50%) of 16 patients, compared with three (20%) of 15 age-matched control subjects. Neither of these differences reached significance, although the power of the study to detect differences between groups was small. Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome had significantly more defects throughout the cerebral cortex on SPECT scans than did normal subjects (7.31 vs 0.43 defects per subject, p < .001). SPECT abnormalities were present in 13 (81%) of 16 patients, vs three (21%) of 14 control subjects (p < .01). SPECT scans showed significantly more abnormalities than did MR scans in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (p < .025). In the few patients who had repeat SPECT and MR studies, the number of SPECT abnormalities appeared to correlate with clinical status, whereas MR changes were irreversible.
CONCLUSION: SPECT abnormalities occur more frequently and in greater numbers than MR abnormalities do in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. SPECT may prove to be useful in following the clinical progress of patients with this syndrome.
Of course, there's the classic one (abstract doesn't say what kind of MRI findings, but maybe it's in the library)
Buchwald D, Cheney PR, Peterson DL, Henry B, Wormsley SB, Geiger A, Ablashi DV, Salahuddin SZ, Saxinger C, Biddle R, et al. "A chronic illness characterized by fatigue, neurologic and immunologic disorders, and active human herpesvirus type 6 infection." Ann Intern Med. 1992 Jan 15;116(2):103-13. PMID: 1309285
CONCLUSIONS: Neurologic symptoms, MRI findings, and lymphocyte phenotyping studies suggest that the patients may have been experiencing a chronic, immunologically mediated inflammatory process of the central nervous system. The active replication of HHV-6 most likely represents reactivation of latent infection, perhaps due to immunologic dysfunction. Our study did not directly address whether HHV-6, a lymphotropic and gliotropic virus, plays a role in producing the symptoms or the immunologic and neurologic dysfunction seen in this illness. Whether the findings in our patients, who came from a relatively small geographic area, will be generalizable to other patients with a similar syndrome remains to be seen.
here's one using the name:
Daugherty SA, Henry BE, Peterson DL, Swarts RL, Bastien S, Thomas RS. "Chronic fatigue syndrome in northern Nevada." Rev Infect Dis. 1991 Jan-Feb;13 Suppl 1:S39-44. PMID: 1850542
Abstract
The clinical and laboratory findings from studies of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) from northern Nevada are summarized. Physicians caring for these patients have estimated that greater than 400 patients with CFS from northern Nevada and nearby communities in California were identified between 1984 and 1988. As a result of these studies, a cluster of clinical and laboratory features associated with the illness in moderately to severely affected patients has been identified: profound fatigue of prolonged duration; cervical lymphadenopathy; recurrent sore throat and/or symptoms of influenza; loss of cognitive function manifested by loss of memory and loss of ability to concentrate; myalgia; impairment of fine motor skills; abnormal findings on magnetic resonance imaging brain scan; depressed level of antibody to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen; elevated level of antibody to EBV early antigen restricted component; elevated ratio of CD4 helper to CD8 suppressor cells; and strong evidence of association of this syndrome with infection with human herpesvirus 6. More-serious and longer-lasting neurologic impairments, including seizures, psychosis, and dementia, have also been observed in some of these patients.
Natelson BH, Cohen JM, Brassloff I, Lee HJ. "A controlled study of brain magnetic resonance imaging in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome." J Neurol Sci. 1993 Dec 15;120(2):213-7. PMID:
8138812
Two neuroradiologists compared the brain MR scans of 52 patients with the CDC criteria for the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) with those of 52 age and sex matched controls who had undergone imaging because of histories of head trauma or headache. CFS patients had significantly more abnormal scans than controls--27% vs 2%. Abnormalities seen were foci of increased white matter T2 signal in 9 CFS patients and one control and ventricular or sulcal enlargement in 5 CFS patients. Follow up of patients with subcortical signal hyperintensities revealed 3 who had symptoms suggestive of other known medical causes of what appeared to be CFS.
