Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23390566›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of translational research2013

A Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) severity score based on case designation criteria.

James N Baraniuk, Oluwatoyin Adewuyi, Samantha Jean Merck, Mushtaq Ali, Murugan K Ravindran, Christian R Timbol, Rakib Rayhan, Yin Zheng, Uyenphuong Le, Rania Esteitie and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of translational research, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
38citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

38 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Circulating cell-free RNA signatures for the characterization and diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

James N BaraniukDivision of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Georgetown University Washington, DC, USA.
Oluwatoyin Adewuyi
Samantha Jean Merck
Mushtaq Ali
Murugan K Ravindran
Christian R Timbol
Rakib Rayhan
Yin Zheng
Uyenphuong Le
Rania Esteitie
Kristina N Petrie

Funding

Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUUL1TR000101 · NCATS · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · PI MELLMAN, THOMAS A, VERBALIS, JOSEPH G · 2012 to 2015
$19.3M
Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUUL1RR031975 · NCRR · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · PI VERBALIS, JOSEPH G · 2010 to 2011
$14.6M
Proteomics of Cerebrospinal Fluid in Chronic Fatigue SyndromeR01ES015382 · NIEHS · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · PI BARANIUK, JAMES N · 2006 to 2009
$1.5M
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR000101NCRR NIH HHS UL1 RR031975NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES015382
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundChronic Fatigue Syndrome case designation criteria are scored as physicians' subjective, nominal interpretations of patient fatigue, pain (headaches, myalgia, arthralgia, sore throat and lymph nodes), cognitive dysfunction, sleep and exertional exhaustion.

methodsSubjects self-reported symptoms using an anchored ordinal scale of 0 (no symptom), 1 (trivial complaints), 2 (mild), 3 (moderate), and 4 (severe). Fatigue of 3 or 4 distinguished "Fatigued" from "Not Fatigued" subjects. The sum of the 8(Sum8) ancillary criteria was tested as a proxy for fatigue. All subjects had history and physical examinations to exclude medical fatigue, and ensure categorization as healthy or CFS subjects.

resultsFatigued subjects were divided into CFS with ≥4 symptoms or Chronic Idiopathic Fatigue (CIF) with ≤3 symptoms. ROC of Sum8 for CFS and Not Fatigued subjects generated a threshold of 14 (specificity=0.934; sensitivity=0.928). CFS (n=256) and CIF (n=55) criteria were refined to include Sum8≥14 and ≤13, respectively. Not Fatigued subjects had highly skewed Sum8 responses. Healthy Controls (HC; n=269) were defined by fatigue≤2 and Sum8≤13. Those with Sum8≥14 were defined as CFS-Like With Insufficient Fatigue Syndrome (CFSLWIFS; n=20). Sum8 and Fatigue were highly correlated (R(2)=0.977; Cronbach's alpha=0.924) indicating an intimate relationship between symptom constructs. Cluster analysis suggested 4 clades each in CFS and HC. Translational utility was inferred from the clustering of proteomics from cerebrospinal fluid.

conclusionsPlotting Fatigue severity versus Sum8 produced an internally consistent classifying system. This is a necessary step for translating symptom profiles into fatigue phenotypes and their pathophysiological mechanisms.

Indexed as

Fatiguefibromyalgiamyalgic encephalomyelitispainproteomics

Identifiers

PMID23390566
PMCPMC3560481

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.