Researchers pinpointed structural anomalies in the brains of people struggling with symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) for the first time.
The researchers made their findings after performing a number of imaging techniques, the results could lead to easier diagnosis of the condition in the future, the Radiological Society of North America reported.
CFS is characterized by significant fatigue and "brain fog" that does not clear up after a good night's sleep and lasts for duration of at least six months. The condition affects about one million adults and children in the U.S. and is difficult to diagnose.
"This is a very common and debilitating disease," said the study lead author Michael M. Zeineh, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. "It's very frustrating for patients, because they feel tired and are experiencing difficulty thinking, and the science has yet to determine what has gone wrong."
The researchers compared the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results of 15 CFS patients with 14 age and gender matched controls. The team used three different MRI techniques: "volumetric analysis to measure the size of different compartments of the brain, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess the integrity of the signal-carrying white matter tracts of the brain, and arterial spin labeling (ASL) to measure blood flow."
The results showed people in the CFS group had slightly lower white matter volume in their brains and also displayed abnormally high fractional anisotropy (FA) values (a DTI measure of the diffusion of water) in a specific white matter tract called the right arcuate fasciculus. These findings indicate the white matter in the right hemisphere is linked with the debilitating condition.
"Within CFS patients, right anterior arcuate FA increased with disease severity," Zeineh said. "The differences correlated with their fatigue-the more abnormal the tract, the worse the fatigue."
The study also found abnormalities in CFS patents in the two regions of the brain that connect the right arcuate fasciculus.
"This is the first study to look at white matter tracts in CFS and correlate them with cortical findings," Dr. Zeineh said. "It's not something you could see with conventional imaging."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Radiology.
