For decades, patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have faced a diagnostic dilemma.

They have experienced or lived with debilitating fatigue, cognitive difficulties, post-exertional malaise, yet no definitive laboratory test existed to confirm their suffering.

Diagnosis has often been one of exclusion, ruling out thyroid disease, anaemia, depression, and more, leaving many waiting years or being misdiagnosed.

This diagnostic uncertainty has contributed to stigma, delayed care, and frustration among patients and clinicians alike. Now, a team of scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in collaboration with Oxford BioDynamics claim to have leapfrogged that barrier.

They have developed a blood test based on genetic markers, specifically, patterns of DNA folding detectable in blood samples, that reportedly distinguishes chronic fatigue syndrome patients from healthy individuals with around 96% accuracy.

The test, leveraging the EpiSwitch 3D genomics platform, is being touted as the first high-accuracy blood diagnostic tool for chronic fatigue syndrome.

If borne out by further trials, this would mark a paradigm shift in how the illness is understood, validated, and treated.

Source:Ndtv