ArticleJournal of clinical medicine2023
Utility of Serum Ferritin for Predicting Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Patients with Long COVID.
Article in Journal of clinical medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Increased Insulin Resistance and Hyperglycaemia in Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Exploratory Analysis of Serum IGF-I Levels and Symptom Trajectories in Long COVID During the Omicron Period.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- The Time Course of Serum Iron and Serum Ferritin Concentrations Post-COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccinations.Case reports in infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Clinical Utility of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Titers in the Management of Patients With Long COVID Infected With the Omicron Variant.British journal of biomedical science · 2026Observational
- Clinical Evaluation of Oxidative Stress Markers in Patients with Long COVID During the Omicron Phase in Japan.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Elevated risk of new-onset chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis up to four years after SARS-CoV-2 infection.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Symptomatic Trends and Time to Recovery for Long COVID Patients Infected During the Omicron Phase.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Neurological and Immunological Insights Into Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: A Single-Center Retrospective Study.Cureus · 2025Article
- Interrelationships Between Plasma Levels of Brain Natriuretic Peptide and Prolonged Symptoms Due to Long COVID.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Clinical and endocrine features of orthostatic intolerance detected in patients with long COVID.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Importance of Blood Glucose Measurement for Predicting the Prognosis of Long COVID: A Retrospective Study in Japan.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Occult endocrine disorders newly diagnosed in patients with post-COVID-19 symptoms.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Long COVID outcomes following omicron wave in non-hospital population.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- New Perspectives on Circulating Ferritin: Its Role in Health and Disease.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Ferritin and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in post COVID-19, an unexpected facet of the hyperferritinemic syndrome?Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe most common symptom of post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is fatigue, and it potentially leads to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS); however, a specific prognosticator is lacking. We aimed to elucidate the clinical characteristics of patients who developed ME/CFS after COVID-19.
methodsIn this retrospective observational study, patients who visited Okayama University Hospital for long COVID between February 2021 and March 2022 were investigated.
resultsOf the 234 patients, 139 (59.4%) had fatigue symptoms. Fifty patients with fatigue symptoms (21.4%) met the criteria for ME/CFS (ME/CFS group), while the other 89 patients did not (non-ME/CFS group); 95 patients had no fatigue complaints (no-fatigue group). Although the patients' backgrounds were not significantly different between the three groups, the ME/CFS group presented the highest scores on the self-rating symptom scales, including the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), EuroQol, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Furthermore, serum ferritin levels, which were correlated with FAS and SDS scores, were significantly higher in the ME/CFS group (193.0 μg/L, interquartile range (IQR): 58.8-353.8) than in the non-ME/CFS group (98.2 μg/L, 40.4-251.5) and no-fatigue group (86.7 μg/L, 37.5-209.0), and a high serum ferritin level was prominent in female patients. Endocrine workup further showed that the ME/CFS group had higher thyrotropin levels but lower growth hormone levels in serum and that insulin-like growth factor-I levels were inversely correlated with ferritin levels (R = -0.328,
conclusionsSerum ferritin level is a possible predictor of the development of ME/CFS related to long COVID, especially in female patients.
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