Chronic fatigue syndrome or Lyme disease? Spinal fluid holds the key

Chronic fatigue syndrome or Lyme disease? Spinal fluid holds the key

Chronic fatigue syndrome and Lyme disease have similar symptoms and many health professionals can still be dumbfounded in telling the differences between the two conditions.

The key in knowing for sure may lie in a newly-discovered group of proteins in spinal fluid. A small preliminary study shows promising findings that can help clinicians.

Researchers led by Dr. Steven Schutzer studied spinal fluid from 43 individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome, 25 people known to have chronic Lyme disease and 11 others who were deemed healthy. They then used high-tech equipment to identify 2,500 proteins. Each group of participants had a specific set of these proteins that are unique to the group.

This unique grouping can set patients apart from each other and can help doctors diagnose more precisely, Dr. Schutzer of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey said. They tested spinal fluid for the study but blood testing is also being considered to detect the protein indicators.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and appeared in Wednesday's issue of the scientific journal PLoS One.

According to Dr. Joseph Breen, a specialist of Lyme disease at the NIH, the study will need to be expanded but said the preliminary results helped shed some light on the development of the two conditions which are yet to be fully understood.

Patients with Lyme disease are treated with antibiotics. But they report having symptoms of fatigue, pain and neurologic problems several months after treatment, similar to what happens in people diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Posted by George Daniels on Thursday February 24 2011, 3:34 AM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0