Brain MR in chronic fatigue syndrome.

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence of MR white matter abnormalities in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

METHODS Brain MR studies of 43 patients (29 women and 14 men, 22 to 78 years old) with a clinical diagnosis of CFS (n = 15), CFS with associated depression (n = 14), and CFS with associated other psychiatric disorders, namely, anxiety and somatization disorder (n = 14), were compared with brain MR studies in 43 age- and sex-matched control subjects.

RESULTS MR findings were abnormal in 13 (32%) of the patients in the study group (ages 34 to 78 years) and in 12 (28%) of the control subjects (ages 26 to 73 years). One patient with CFS had multiple areas of demyelination in the supratentorial periventricular white matter. Another patient with CFS and associated depression had a single focus of probable demyelination in the supratentorial periventricular white matter. In four patients with CFS (ages 34 to 48 years) MR abnormalities consisted of one or several punctate hyperintense foci in the corona radiata, centrum ovale, and frontal white matter. The remaining seven patients (ages 50 to 78 years) had frontoparietal subcortical white matter foci of high T2 signal. The prevalence of white matter hyperintensities was not different between the patients and the control subjects.

CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that no MR pattern of white matter abnormalities is specific to CFS.