The CFS Case Definition
article syndicated from NIAID NEWS
updated on 06/20/2007 at 11:06AM
Scientific studies on EBV sparked new interest in the syndrome among medical researchers. They realized they needed a standard way to describe CFS so they could more easily compare research results.
In the late 1980s, CDC brought together a group of CFS experts to tackle this problem. Based on the best information available at the time, this group published in the March 1988 issue of the scientific journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, symptom and physical criteria—the first case definition—with which scientists could evaluate CFS study patients.
Not knowing the cause or a specific sign for the disease, the group agreed to call the illness “chronic fatigue syndrome” after its primary symptom. “Syndrome” means a group of symptoms that occur together but can result from different causes. (Today, CFS also is known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, postviral fatigue syndrome, and chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome.)
After using this definition for several years, CFS researchers realized some criteria were unclear or unnecessary. An international group of CFS experts reviewed the criteria for CDC, which led to the first changes in the case definition. This new definition was published in the same journal in December 1994.
In addition to revising the CFS case criteria—which reduced the required minimum number of symptoms to four out of a list of eight possible symptoms—the newer report also proposed a conceptual outline for studying the syndrome. This outline recognizes CFS as part of a range of illnesses that have fatigue as a major symptom. Although primarily intended for researchers, these guidelines should help health care providers better diagnose CFS.
Despite the existence of case definitions, the causes of CFS remain essentially unknown, and the only way to make the diagnosis is to rule out other causes of the same symptoms. This can be particularly difficult because many patients with CFS also have major psychiatric illnesses such as depression, and some of these conditions and the medicines used to treat them can cause some of the CFS symptoms.
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illnesses, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, illness from potential agents of bioterrorism, tuberculosis, malaria, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.
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