ArticleDiagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)2018
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or What? The International Consensus Criteria.
Article in Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of acupuncture-based traditional Chinese medicine therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Re-visiting professional ethics in psychotherapy: reflections on the use of talking therapies as a supportive adjunct for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and 'medically unexplained symptoms'.Journal of medical ethics · 2026Article
- Chronic fatigue syndrome in nursing practice: a concept analysis.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Mapping the complexity of ME/CFS: Evidence for abnormal energy metabolism, altered immune profile, and vascular dysfunction.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Article
- The microbiota-gut-brain axis in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a narrative review of an emerging field.European journal of translational myology · 2025Article
- A Quick and Practical Approach to Secure a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis: The Novel Functional Limitation Index.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Causal Effects between Gut Microbiome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- The Gut Microbiome in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- ME (Ramsay) and ME-International Case Criteria (ME-ICC): two distinct clinical entities.Journal of translational medicine · 2020Article
- Biomedical Insights that Inform the Diagnosis of ME/CFS.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
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1 author.
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Abstract
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a neuromuscular disease with two distinctive types of symptoms (muscle fatigability or prolonged muscle weakness after minor exertion and symptoms related to neurological disturbance, especially of sensory, cognitive, and autonomic functions) and variable involvement of other bodily systems. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), introduced in 1988 and re-specified in 1994, is defined as (unexplained) chronic fatigue accompanied by at least four out of eight listed (ill-defined) symptoms. Although ME and CFS are two distinct clinical entities (with partial overlap), CFS overshadowed ME for decades. In 2011, a panel of experts recommended abandoning the label CFS and its definition and proposed a new definition of ME: the International Consensus Criteria for ME (ME-ICC). In addition to post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), a mandatory feature, a patient must experience at least three symptoms related to neurological impairments; at least three symptoms related to immune, gastro-intestinal, and genitourinary impairments; and at least one symptom related to energy production or transportation impairments to meet the diagnosis of ME-ICC. A comparison between the original definition of ME and the ME-ICC shows that there are some crucial differences between ME and ME-ICC. Muscle fatigability, or long-lasting post-exertional muscle weakness, is the hallmark feature of ME, while this symptom is facultative for the diagnosis under the ME-ICC. PENE, an abstract notion that is very different from post-exertional muscle weakness, is the hallmark feature of the ME-ICC but is not required for the diagnosis of ME. The diagnosis of ME requires only two type of symptoms (post-exertional muscle weakness and neurological dysfunction), but a patient has to experience at least eight symptoms to meet the diagnosis according to the ME-ICC. Autonomic, sensory, and cognitive dysfunction, mandatory for the diagnosis of ME, are not compulsory to meet the ME-ICC subcriteria for 'neurological impairments'. In conclusion, the diagnostic criteria for ME and of the ME-ICC define two different patient groups. Thus, the definitions of ME and ME-ICC are not interchangeable.
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