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Dr Estibaliz Olano, a senior scientist with Progenika (a biotech company based in Bilbao, Spain),
gave the next keynote lecture, ‘Genetic Profiles in Severe Forms of Fibromyalgia and Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome’. She described the investigations of the Bilbao group, centering around efforts
to distinguish FM and ME/CFS, two illnesses with somewhat overlapping symptoms, difficult to
distinguish and diagnose properly…………….suggest these are two separate illnesses with an
important genetic component.
Before the morning break, Dr Akikazu Sakudo, research associate in the Department of Virology,
Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Japan, described his use of
spectroscopic methods to develop a diagnostic method of objectively identifying chronic diseases
such as ME/CFS. With Prof. Kazuyoshi Ikuta, Professor in the Department of Virology, Dr Sakudo
has been using visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy to examine blood sera from ME/
CFS patients and healthy donors. In their study on 45 patients and 54 donors, they found that it
was possible to discriminate between the two groups, correctly identifying 100% healthy donors
and 93.3% of the ME/CFS patients from masked serum samples, suggesting that Vis-NIR
spectroscopy for sera combined with chemometrics analysis could provide a promising tool for the
objective diagnosis of the illness.
After the break, there was a presentation by Dr Gregor Purdie, a general practitioner and GP
Adviser to NHS Dumfries and Galloway on service development and patient pathways from the
perspective of the practising clinician. Dr Purdie has been actively involved in working with people
with ME/CFS since the late 1990s, and he described recent moves towards setting up a Scottish
Clinical Network on ME/CFS, the outcome being “responsive, empathetic, patient-centered care of
high quality delivered by clinicians who have kept abreast of the latest research, with seamless
working between primary, secondary and tertiary care”.
Rebecca Marshall, who is undertaking a PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University with Dr Lorna Paul in
the School of Health and Social Care, gave the next presentation which was derived from her
doctoral studies on the pain experience in people with ME/CFS. This is a dominant symptom in
patients, and one for which the best possible treatment, tailored to the needs of each patient,
needs to be established. The research group has been recruiting pain-experiencing volunteers from
support groups across Scotland. For this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 50 people (38 women,
12 men) were recruited, including ten people who represented the housebound or bedbound. A
variety of conclusions were presented, including the fact that 66% of participants reported they
were in a stable (chronic) condition, with 24% reporting that their condition was worsening; 79%
of participants reported muscle pain as their ‘worst pain’ on the day of the interview; and that pain
-questionnaire information suggested that the most common ‘descriptors’ of pain, included aching,
throbbing and exhausting. The final work should provide objective data to support clinical reports
of pain, and provide research-valid descriptors to characterise pain. Health professionals must be
aware of the pain problem in ME/CFS, and provide symptomatic help.
Order your copy of the two-DVD set (morning and afternoon) of the presentations the cost is
£6 (P&P included) for the two-DVD set, and please make cheques out to ‘ME Research UK’.
ME Research UK. The Gateway, North Methven Street, Perth PH1 5PP, UK
Telephone 01738 451234 E-mail meruk@pkavs.org.uk
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