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Nature Communications Jan 2024A subgroup of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain symptomatic over three months after infection. A distinctive symptom of patients with long COVID is...
A subgroup of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain symptomatic over three months after infection. A distinctive symptom of patients with long COVID is post-exertional malaise, which is associated with a worsening of fatigue- and pain-related symptoms after acute mental or physical exercise, but its underlying pathophysiology is unclear. With this longitudinal case-control study (NCT05225688), we provide new insights into the pathophysiology of post-exertional malaise in patients with long COVID. We show that skeletal muscle structure is associated with a lower exercise capacity in patients, and local and systemic metabolic disturbances, severe exercise-induced myopathy and tissue infiltration of amyloid-containing deposits in skeletal muscles of patients with long COVID worsen after induction of post-exertional malaise. This study highlights novel pathways that help to understand the pathophysiology of post-exertional malaise in patients suffering from long COVID and other post-infectious diseases.
Topics: Humans; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; SARS-CoV-2; Case-Control Studies; COVID-19; Fatigue; Musculoskeletal Abnormalities; Muscle, Skeletal; Pain; Plaque, Amyloid
PubMed: 38177128
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44432-3 -
Reviews on Environmental Health 2015This review was written from the viewpoint of the treating clinician to educate health care professionals and the public about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue... (Review)
Review
This review was written from the viewpoint of the treating clinician to educate health care professionals and the public about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). It includes: the clinical definition of ME/CFS with emphasis on how to diagnose ME/CFS; the etiology, pathophysiology, management approach, long-term prognosis and economic cost of ME/CFS. After reading this review, you will be better able to diagnose and treat your patients with ME/CFS using the tools and information provided. Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex, chronic medical condition characterized by symptom clusters that include: pathological fatigue and malaise that is worse after exertion, cognitive dysfunction, immune dysfunction, unrefreshing sleep, pain, autonomic dysfunction, neuroendocrine and immune symptoms. ME/CFS is common, often severely disabling and costly. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed the ME/CFS literature and estimates that between 836,000 and 2.5 million Americans have ME/CFS at a cost of between 17 and 24 billion dollars annually in the US. The IOM suggested a new name for ME/CFS and called it Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID). SEID's diagnostic criteria are less specific and do not exclude psychiatric disorders in the criteria. The 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey discovered that 29% of patients with ME/CFS had unmet health care needs and 20% had food insecurity--lack of access to sufficient healthy foods. ME/CFS can be severely disabling and cause patients to be bedridden. Yet most patients (80%) struggle to get a diagnosis because doctors have not been taught how to diagnose or treat ME/CFS in medical schools or in their post-graduate educational training. Consequently, the patients with ME/CFS suffer. They are not diagnosed with ME/CFS and are not treated accordingly. Instead of compassionate care from their doctors, they are often ridiculed by the very people from whom they seek help. The precise etiology of ME/CFS remains unknown, but recent advances and research discoveries are beginning to shed light on the enigma of this disease including the following contributors: infectious, genetic, immune, cognitive including sleep, metabolic and biochemical abnormalities. Management of patients with ME/CFS is supportive symptomatic treatment with a patient centered care approach that begins with the symptoms that are most troublesome for the patient. Pacing of activities with strategic rest periods is, in our opinion, the most important coping strategy patients can learn to better manage their illness and stop their post-exertional fatigue and malaise. Pacing allows patients to regain the ability to plan activities and begin to make slow incremental improvements in functionality.
Topics: Evidence-Based Medicine; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic; Humans
PubMed: 26613325
DOI: 10.1515/reveh-2015-0026 -
Cell Metabolism Feb 2020Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a cytokine that reduces food intake through activation of hindbrain GFRAL-RET receptors and has become a keen target of...
Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a cytokine that reduces food intake through activation of hindbrain GFRAL-RET receptors and has become a keen target of interest for anti-obesity therapies. Elevated endogenous GDF15 is associated with energy balance disturbances, cancer progression, chemotherapy-induced anorexia, and morning sickness. We hypothesized that GDF15 causes emesis and that its anorectic effects are related to this function. Here, we examined feeding and emesis and/or emetic-like behaviors in three different mammalian laboratory species to help elucidate the role of GDF15 in these behaviors. Data show that GDF15 causes emesis in Suncus murinus (musk shrews) and induces behaviors indicative of nausea/malaise (e.g., anorexia and pica) in non-emetic species, including mice and lean or obese rats. We also present data in mice suggesting that GDF15 contributes to chemotherapy-induced malaise. Together, these results indicate that GDF15 triggers anorexia through the induction of nausea and/or by engaging emetic neurocircuitry.
Topics: Animals; Anorexia; Body Weight; Female; Growth Differentiation Factor 15; Humans; Hypoglycemic Agents; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Nausea; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Recombinant Proteins; Shrews; Vomiting
PubMed: 31928886
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.12.004 -
Chronic Fatigue and Postexertional Malaise in People Living With Long COVID: An Observational Study.Physical Therapy Apr 2022People living with long COVID describe a high symptom burden, and a more detailed assessment is needed to inform rehabilitation recommendations. The objectives were to... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
OBJECTIVE
People living with long COVID describe a high symptom burden, and a more detailed assessment is needed to inform rehabilitation recommendations. The objectives were to use validated questionnaires to measure the severity of fatigue and compare this with normative data and thresholds for clinical relevance in other diseases; measure and describe the impact of postexertional malaise (PEM); and assess symptoms of dysfunctional breathing, self-reported physical activity, and health-related quality of life.
METHODS
This was an observational study with a cross-sectional survey design (data collection from February 2021 to April 2021). Eligible participants were adults experiencing persistent symptoms due to COVID-19 that did not predate the confirmed or suspected infection. Questionnaires included the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue Scale and the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-Post-Exertional Malaise.
RESULTS
After data cleaning, 213 participants were included in the analysis. The total Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue Scale score was 18 (SD = 10) (where the score can range from 0 to 52, and a lower score indicates more severe fatigue), and 71.4% were experiencing chronic fatigue. Postexertional symptom exacerbation affected most participants, and 58.7% met the PEM scoring thresholds used in people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
CONCLUSION
Long COVID is characterized by chronic fatigue that is clinically relevant and at least as severe as fatigue in several other clinical conditions. PEM is a significant challenge for this patient group. Because of the potential for setbacks and deteriorated function following overexertion, fatigue and postexertional symptom exacerbation must be monitored and reported in clinical practice and in studies involving interventions for people with long COVID.
IMPACT
Physical therapists working with people with long COVID should measure and validate the patient's experience. Postexertional symptom exacerbation must be considered, and rehabilitation needs to be carefully designed based on individual presentation. Beneficial interventions might first ensure symptom stabilization via pacing, a self-management strategy for the activity that helps minimize postexertional malaise.
Topics: Adult; COVID-19; Cross-Sectional Studies; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic; Humans; Quality of Life; Symptom Flare Up; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome
PubMed: 35079817
DOI: 10.1093/ptj/pzac005 -
Journal of General and Family Medicine Mar 2021A 69-year-old man presented with fever, chill, and malaise. A thorough physical examination brought the correct diagnosis of psoas abscess to light. In this case, a...
A 69-year-old man presented with fever, chill, and malaise. A thorough physical examination brought the correct diagnosis of psoas abscess to light. In this case, a physical examination is the only way to correct diagnosis.
PubMed: 33717778
DOI: 10.1002/jgf2.396