Highlights:
- Adults with ME/CFS experience a 3-fold greater reduction in cerebral blood flow during end-tilt tilt compared to healthy controls, confirming orthostatic intolerance.
- During tilt testing we found that in 134/362 (37%) patients with ME/CFS without POTS or hypotension, the heart rate increase was below the lower limit of the 95% prediction interval of the heart rate increase of controls, indicative of orthostatic chronotropic incompetence.
- These novel findings represent the first description of orthostatic chronotropic incompetence during tilt testing, confirming another abnormality in the circulatory response to upright posture in ME/CFS.
Abstract:
Background: Orthostatic intolerance (OI) is a core diagnostic criterion in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The majority of ME/CFS patients have no evidence of hypotension or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) during head-up tilt, but do show a significantly larger reduction in stroke volume index (SVI) when upright compared to controls. Theoretically a reduction in SVI should be accompanied by a compensatory increase in heart rate (HR). When there is an incomplete compensatory increase in HR, this is considered chronotropic incompetence.
This study explored the relationship between HR and SVI to determine whether chronotropic incompetence was present during tilt testing in ME/CFS patients.
Methods: From a database of individuals who had undergone tilt testing with Doppler measurements for SVI both supine and end-tilt, we selected ME/CFS patients and healthy controls (HC) who had no evidence of POTS or hypotension during the test.
To determine the relation between the HR increase and SVI decrease during the tilt test in patients, we calculated the 95% prediction intervals of this relation in HC. Chronotropic incompetence in patients was defined as a HR increase below the lower limit of the 95th % prediction interval of the HR increase in HC.
Results: We compared 362 ME/CFS patients with 52 HC. At end-tilt, tilt lasting for 15 (4) min, ME/CFS patients had a significantly lower SVI (22 (4) vs. 27 (4) ml/m2; p<0.0001) and a higher HR (87 (11) vs. 78 (15) bpm; p<0.0001) compared to HC. There was a similar relationship between HR and SVI between ME/CFS patients and HC in the supine position.
During tilt ME/CFS patients had a lower HR for a given SVI; 37% had an inadequate HR increase. Chronotropic incompetence was more common in more severely affected ME/CFS patients.
Conclusion: These novel findings represent the first description of orthostatic chronotropic incompetence during tilt testing in ME/CFS patients.
Source: C. (Linda) M.C. van Campen, Freek W.A. Verheugt, Peter C. Rowe, Frans C. Visser. Orthostatic chronotropic incompetence in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). IBRO Neuroscience Reports [In Press, Journal Pre-proof] Available online 2 May 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667242123000374 (Full text)