FRIDAY, May 2, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Seeking better insight into chronic fatigue syndrome, a new brain scan investigation has pinpointed what could be the first evidence of a connection between nerve cell inflammation and the onset of this debilitating and somewhat mysterious illness, researchers say. The finding stems from a small PET scanstudy, led by Yasuhito Nakatomi of the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Hyogo, Japan. The study involved just nine patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and 10 healthy participants. However, the investigators believe that their initial results are the first to show that neuro-inflammation is a distinct feature of chronic fatigue syndrome. This inflammation affects specific areas of the brain that are commonly linked with the kind of fatigue, pain, depression, and thought-process difficulties long associated with the syndrome, the researchers noted. While the results will need to be confirmed in larger studies, it is a very exciting finding, said Suzanne Vernon, scientific director of the CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) Association of America. She was not involved with the new study. ...
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 04:01:46 +0000