Full article at http://bit.ly/29ISg0I
Over the years, a number of reports in the scientific literature have pointed to the presence of abnormalities of heart (cardiac) function in ME/CFS. The latest comes from Prof Julia Newton and colleagues at Newcastle University and is published in the journal “Open Heart”.
In essence, the work confirms the group’s previous findings – but this time in a larger group of new patients and controls – and showed that the volumes of blood pumped by the heart per beat were lower than in healthy people. Also, in two-thirds of patients, the volume of red blood cells was below the lower limits expected in the normal population. Importantly, the length of illness was not related to any cardiac measurements, suggesting that ‘deconditioning’ (which would be greater the longer a person was ill) was unlikely to be the cause of these abnormalities, as is sometimes claimed.
The next steps are to explore whether these abnormalities are caused by ME/CFS or its consequences or whether, for instance, a (pre-existing) reduced cardiac volume may make people more vulnerable to the development of the illness. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council and ME Research UK, and you can read more at the link above.