Diagnostic Test for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Many biomarkers — objective measurements that distinguish cases from healthy controls — have been identified in people with what is now called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Collectively, these markers demonstrate an underlying organic pathology in this illness. Yet no identified single biomarker has the high sensitivity and specificity needed for a diagnostic test.

Researchers developed a nanoelectronics assay to measure the impedance of electrical circuit as it was passed through mononuclear white blood cells (incubated in plasma collected from an individual patient) before and after osmotic stress. In all 20 samples from people with ME/CFS, but in no sample from healthy controls (20), impedance rose precipito…