Gene Expression Subtypes in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Figures, Table 1)


Figure Captions
Figure 1.
Mean relative quantity of mRNA transcripts (RQ) in patients with chronic
fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME; hatched bars) and healthy
control subjects (black bars) for 88 genes that were differentially expressed
in patients with CFS/ME. Error bars indicate variance from the mean in each
case. The chart is truncated at an RQ of 34, to enhance the clarity of data
for the greatest number of genes.

Figure 2.
Five large and distinct gene networks (A-E) identified using Ingenuity
Pathways Analysis (Ingenuity); functional themes of each are shown in tables
3-5. Genes are colored according to levels of expression determined in the
present study: red denotes upregulation, and blue denotes downregulation.
Color intensity reflects the magnitude of the fold difference between
patients with CFS/ME and healthy subjects.

Figure 3.
A, Clustering of normalized/median centered fold differences, calculated as
the mean relative quantity of mRNA transcripts (RQ) in patients with chronic
fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) for each subtype divided
by the mean RQ in healthy control subjects, for 88 genes associated with
CFS/ME. B, Clustering of logarithm (base 2) fold differences, calculated as
the mean RQ in patients with CFS/ME for each subtype divided by the mean RQ
in healthy controls, for 88 genes associated with CFS/ME.

Figure 4.
A, Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36 (SF-36) domain and total scores for
each chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) subtype:
physical function (PF), physical role (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health
(GH), vitality (VIT), social functioning (SF), emotional role (RE), mental
health (MH), and total score (Total). B, Scores indicating the occurrence and
severity of the following 11 clinical symptoms and 2 neurocognitive functions
for each CFS/ME subtype: headache (HA), sore throat (ST), swollen glands
(GLA), cognitive defect (COG), muscle pain (MP), joint pain (JP), muscle
weakness (MW), postexertional malaise (PEM), sleep problems (SLE),
fainting/dizziness (F/D), gastrointestinal complaints (GI), numbness/tingling
(N/T), spatial span (SSP), and verbal recognition memory (VRM). C, Histogram
showing the number of patients with CFS/ME of each subtype, by geographical
location.


Tables

Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics and results of diagnostic
        tests for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic
        encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and healthy blood donors involved in
        microarray and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) studies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              Microarray study         Real-time PCR study
                              ------------------       -------------------
                              CFS/ME     Healthy       CFS/ME      Healthy
                              group      group         group       group
Characteristic                 (n=25)     (n=50)        (n=55)      (n=75)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Female sex                     19         38            36          51
Age, years, mean               43.2       44.1          41.6        43.3
Disease duration, years, mean   3.33      NA             3.17       NA
Symptoms/signs
 Headache                     11          1             26          3
 Sore throat                  11          0             27          0
 Poor memory/concentration    20          2             30          3
 Muscle pain                  18          0             37          0
 Muscle weakness              12          0             36          0
 Joint pain                   20          1             41          2
 Postexertional malaise       23          0             47          0
 Sleep problem                22          2             44          4
 Gastrointestinal problems    15          1             35          3
 Fainting/dizziness           11          0             25          0
 Numbness/tingling            10          0             24          0
 Tender lymphadenopathy       12          0             27          0
Test, score, mean
 Chalder Fatigue Scale
    Physical                  15.69       5.84          16.13       7.41
    Mental                     8.1        3.38           8.05       4.25
 McGill Pain Questionnaire    16.11       1.08          15.28       1.22
 SPHERE                       12.17       1.42          11.25       1.76
 SF-36                        49.7       83.87          46.45      84.96
 Pittsburgh Sleep Quality     10.31       4.36          10.22       4.40
   Index
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NOTE. NA, not applicable; SF-36, Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36; SPHERE,
Somatic and Psychological Health Report.