Andy
Retired committee member
Abstract
It has been shown previously that some patients with chronic fatigue syndrome show an abnormal increase in plasma lactate following a short period of moderate exercise, in the sub-anaerobic threshold exercise test (SATET). This cannot be explained satisfactorily by the effects of `inactivity' or `deconditioning', and patients with abnormal lactate responses to exercise (SATET +ve) have been found to have significantly fewer Type 1 muscle fibres in quadriceps biopsies than SATET −ve patients. We performed phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy on forearm muscles of 10 SATET +ve patients, 9 SATET −ve patients and 13 sedentary volunteers. There were no differences in resting spectra between these groups but at the end of exercise, intracellular pH in the SATET +ve patients was significantly lower than in both the SATET −ve cases and controls (P<0.03), and the SATET +ve patients also showed a significantly lower ATP synthesis rate during recovery (P<0.01), indicating impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. These observations support other evidence which indicates that chronic fatigue syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder, and confirms the view that some chronic fatigue syndrome patients have a peripheral component to their fatigue.
Paywall, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960896698000212
It has been shown previously that some patients with chronic fatigue syndrome show an abnormal increase in plasma lactate following a short period of moderate exercise, in the sub-anaerobic threshold exercise test (SATET). This cannot be explained satisfactorily by the effects of `inactivity' or `deconditioning', and patients with abnormal lactate responses to exercise (SATET +ve) have been found to have significantly fewer Type 1 muscle fibres in quadriceps biopsies than SATET −ve patients. We performed phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy on forearm muscles of 10 SATET +ve patients, 9 SATET −ve patients and 13 sedentary volunteers. There were no differences in resting spectra between these groups but at the end of exercise, intracellular pH in the SATET +ve patients was significantly lower than in both the SATET −ve cases and controls (P<0.03), and the SATET +ve patients also showed a significantly lower ATP synthesis rate during recovery (P<0.01), indicating impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. These observations support other evidence which indicates that chronic fatigue syndrome is a heterogeneous disorder, and confirms the view that some chronic fatigue syndrome patients have a peripheral component to their fatigue.
Paywall, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960896698000212