CFS / ME Chronisches Fatigue Syndrom: Forschung für Biomarker:

https://prof-stark-institut.de/cfs-forschungsprojekt/

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
There are an estimated 400,000 CFS sufferers in Germany and an estimated 17 million worldwide. The number of unreported cases is high because there is no accepted diagnostic procedure for CFS. Patients are often misclassified as having a mental disorder, as exhaustion is also known to occur in these illnesses, but to a much lesser extent than in CFS. There are no hard diagnostic criteria, such as technical test procedures, called markers, that clearly distinguish this illness from mental illness.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the disease of our modern age.
Our bodies have natural limits to how much chronic stress they can withstand without breaking down. If our body is exposed to these stresses for too long, our natural defense system will eventually break down. Our immune system also stops working and bacterial and viral diseases become more common. Patients complain of extreme exhaustion and a much longer recovery time, if any, from physical, mental and cognitive stress. This is similar to the situation with multiple sclerosis in the 1950s. At that time, the symptoms of the disease were thought to be an expression of hysteria, of hidden psychological conflicts. It was only when certain abnormalities were found in the laboratory and in the then-new computerized tomography that it was recognized as a physical rather than a mental disease. This is the dilemma facing the diagnosis of CFS today.

Research Projects
So-called markers are being sought that can clearly distinguish CFS sufferers from healthy people or those with purely mental illnesses.

Sports medicine method for the measurement of the regulatory capacity of the autonomic nervous system
The regulatory capacity of the autonomic nervous system, whether its two components, the sympathetic nervous system (the stimulator) and the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxer), are activated in unison or in opposite directions, can be measured using sports medicine procedures. Patients with CFS at our institute showed massive regulatory dysfunction. We want to test this approach and establish this stress medical examination as a marker for the diagnosis of CFS. Prerequisite: Scientific tests in comparison with healthy subjects (n=40 each).
Another approach is to examine the functional structures of the autonomic nervous system in the brain. Here, initial functional MRI findings show signs of inflammation in the pathways. Again, at least 60 healthy subjects need to be studied in order to demonstrate the quality of the biomarker.