TITLE:
Blood Volume Status in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Relation to Complaints
AUTHORS:
C. (Linda) M. C. van Campen, Frans C. Visser
KEYWORDS:
Blood Volume, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Orthostatic Intolerance, Red Blood Cell Volume
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.9 No.11,
November
27,
2018
ABSTRACT: Four studies have compared a possible decrease in circulating blood volume in Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients when compared to a healthy population. A more recent study has proven a correlation between RBC volume and OI in chronic OI patients without being diagnosed ME/CFS. The aim of the present study was to relate measured blood, RBC and plasma volumes (absolute and percent normalized) with the orthostatic intolerance complaints in ME/CFS patients. In the included 11 female ME/CFS patients, percentage decrease in normalized blood, RBC and plasma volume was similar for all three components: 83% ± 12%, 83% ± 12% and 83% ± 11%, respectively. In patients with a clinical suspicion of OI (n = 7) all 3 volume components were significantly lower compared to patients without clinical suspicion of OI (n = 4). The difference percentage to normalized Blood volume was 77(7) vs 94(10) (p-value