Currently fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are conditions where there are few accepted lab or imaging tests available to ascertain a diagnosis for them. Therefore they are usually diagnosed through the exclusion of other conditions with similar symptoms, and ultimately through opinion. This makes the medical community place them in a position where many don’t take it seriously.
There are a couple of tests that claim diagnosis of fibromyalgia, one developed in 2012, which is the FM/a blood test (a cytokine assay of in vitro stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells). Unfortunately the test isn’t highly accurate, cheap or convenient as people are required to stop various medication to take the test, and it costs around $1000 – $2000.
Another test is Isolate Fibromyalgia (a Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) analysis of blood samples), developed in 2018. However this has been seen by some as unreliable, due to the theory that low levels of cytokines can indicate other conditions in addition to fibromyalgia.
You can also be tested for Epstein Barr virus, which has been linked to CFS, however it isn’t the only virus that has been linked to it, and the presence of the virus doesn’t necessarily say much about the illness, as it could be a post-recovery dysfunction.
Currently the consensus is that all the symptoms of both these conditions are likely resulting from a dysfunction in the central nervous system and/or the immune system, with evidence mostly coming from patients simply reporting how they feel. Very few medical experts are knowledgeable about the condition and very little funding is put towards research and treatment. In fact the conditions have a history of medical practitioners throwing scorn at them, and not believing they even exist, especially as women seem to suffer from them as a majority.
A cheap and accurate blood test would change this dynamic tremendously, and would quickly dispel a lot of the medical ignorance around the conditions and help millions of people get answers and most importantly treatment.
Back in 2019, a ground-breaking blood test for Fibromyalgia was announced by Prof. Kevin Hackshaw and colleagues at Ohio State, which measures the metabolic activity of cells (through vibrational spectroscopy) and accurately identified Fibromyalgia in a small group of participants. They hoped to have the test ready in 5 years, and so we still have another 3 years left to wait at minimum.
Stanford scientists, Ronald Davis, Rahim Esfandyarpour and colleagues also announced in 2019, that they had discovered a biomarker for chronic fatigue syndrome. Ronald Davis’s son has suffered from this condition for over a decade which generated personal motivation for him to research this subject and also helped them develop the test through their personal observations of the condition in a family member.
Both these tests aim in different ways, to target the ability of cells to generate energy, and compare it to a healthy example. Both also hope that through the development of a blood test, the same fundamental ideas involved in testing cell energy can be used to develop treatment.
On the pessimistic side, it’s also possible these tests won’t be as accurate in large groups, and for many a test might report a false negative for those who have suffered from the illness for a short period of time versus the people who have had it for decades. It’s also unclear as to how expensive these tests will end up. It doesn’t seem very easy to test the energy of a cell, as opposed to a simple metabolic panel blood test.
But there is still some optimism to be had. At the very least, it’s great that researchers are making progress and that more awareness is being spread around these debilitating and misunderstood conditions.
I’ve not been entirely convinced about the effectiveness of blood tests for fibromyalgia and CFS. More clarification on their reliability would be appreciated.
This is very helpful, always been wondering if I have CFS.