Recovery from two-day CPET in ME/CFS

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) was an integral part of our NIH-funded collaborative research center (CRC). The Cornell CRC used the CPET as a way to interrogate the hallmark symptom of ME/CFS—post-exertional malaise (PEM). CPET-associated samples are being analyzed to uncover the molecular basis of PEM. This molecular work gave us the opportunity to explore other aspects of PEM such as recovery following exertion.

Dr. Geoffrey Moore, M.D., Cornell CRC Clinical Core Co-director, led an effort to describe CPET recovery in ME/CFS.  This work is now available in the journal Medicina under the title Recovery from Exercise in Persons with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The paper documents a significant difference in recovery between sedentary controls (~2 days) and people with ME/CFS (~13 days). Moore et al. studied 84 people with ME/CFS and 60 controls using a self-reported symptom severity questionnaire. Both female and male participants from three different test sites across the United States were included in the study. The publication is open access so check it out for more information.

Collaborators publish CPET case report

Our collaborators at the Workwell Foundation, working with physical therapists and exercise physiologists, have published a case report in the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal on measurement reproducibility over the two days of a two-day cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). The report looked at the variability of CPET results from six people with and without medical diagnoses of fatiguing illnesses. All of the participants were women and matched by age and BMI. Although the authors point out that generalizations are not possible due to the low number of included subjects, the response to exercise by both individuals with ME/CFS is important to highlight. 

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