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A disorder, known as fibromyalgia, characterized by fatigue and pain, has long frustrated clinicians because conventional diagnostic testing reveals little evidence of objective pathology. In a new study from Boston and Stockholm, researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to assess neuroinflammation in the brains of fibromyalgia patients.
The teams conducted PET scans in 31 fibromyalgia patients and 27 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. In fibromyalgia patients, the scans revealed widespread activation of glial cells (antigen-presenting cells) in the cortex, particularly in the frontal and parietal lobes. This glial activation was not seen in controls. Moreover, the degree of glial activation correlated with reported intensity …