From: "\"Doc\" Bruce K. Melson" <docmelson@docmelson.com>
X-RCPT-TO: <Will@willpete.com>
1: Sci
Total Environ 2001 Apr 10;270(1-3):27-31 Related Articles, Books,
LinkOut
Chronic fatigue syndrome following a toxic exposure.
Racciatti D, Vecchiet J, Ceccomancini A, Ricci F, Pizzigallo E.
Department of Infectious Diseases, G. D'Annunzio University, Chieti Scalo,
Italy.
racciatt@unich.it
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a clinical entity characterized by severe
fatigue lasting more than 6 months and other well-defined symptoms. Even
though
in most CFS cases the etiology is still unknown, sometimes the mode of
presentation of the illness implicates the exposure to chemical and/or food
toxins
as precipitating factors: ciguatera poisoning, sick building syndrome,
Gulf
War syndrome, exposure to organochlorine pesticides, etc. In the
National Reference Center for CFS Study at the Department of Infectious
Diseases of 'G. D'Annunzio' University (Chieti) we examined five patients
(three
females and two males, mean age: 37.5 years) who developed the
clinical features of CFS several months after the exposure to environmental
toxic
factors: ciguatera poisoning in two cases, and exposure to solvents in
the
other three cases. These patients were compared and contrasted with two
sex-
and age-matched subgroups of CFS patients without any history of
exposure to toxins: the first subgroup consisted of patients with CFS onset
following an EBV infection (post-infectious CFS), and the second of patients
with a
concurrent diagnosis of major depression. All subjects were
investigated by clinical examination, neurophysiological and immunologic
studies, and neuroendocrine tests. Patients exposed to toxic factors had
disturbances of hypothalamic function similar to those in controls and, above
all,
showed more severe dysfunction of the immune system with an abnormal
CD4/CD8 ratio, and in three of such cases with decreased levels of NK cells
(CD56+). These findings may help in understanding the pathogenetic mechanisms
involved in CFS.
PMID:
11327394 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
"When the
way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through."
I. Ching
Bruce "Doc". Melson