Discover Mag. ~ Chronic lyme pts Validated

[Guest guest]

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jan-feb/90

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome

(in which symptoms persist after antibiotic treatment) have spent decades

fending off charges that their debilitating exhaustion and cognitive problems

were simply imagined. But a study released last February provides tangible

evidence that their conditions are real and distinct entities.

Immunologist Schutzer of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New

Jersey examined samples of cerebrospinal fluid, the clear liquid & #8232;that

surrounds the brain and spinal cord, from patients with each syndrome. In

identifying the contents of that fluid, he documented different sets of proteins

for each group of patients, potential biomarkers that distinguish between the

two & #8232;conditions and healthy controls. Schutzer revealed the marker

proteins by removing common, unrelated proteins like albumin and immunoglobulin

from the spinal fluid before his analysis. " That lets the smaller proteins—the

potential biomarkers—not get obscured, " he says. " At least now we know we're not

just speculating about the differences between chronic fatigue syndrome and

post-treatment Lyme. "