Morita Satoru, Tokumasu Kazuki, Otsuka Yuki, Honda Hiroyuki, Nakano Yasuhiro, Sunada Naruhiko, Sakurada Yasue, Matsuda Yui, Soejima Yoshiaki, Ueda Keigo, Otsuka Fumio
Department of General Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 9;19(12):e0315385. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315385. eCollection 2024.
The characteristics of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) related to COVID-19 have remained uncertain. To elucidate the clinical trend of ME/CFS induced by long COVID, we examined data for patients who visited our outpatient clinic established in a university hospital during the period from Feb 2021 to July 2023.
Long COVID patients were classified into two groups, an ME/CFS group and a non-ME/CFS group, based on three diagnostic criteria.
The prevalence of ME/CFS in the long COVID patients was 8.4% (62 of 739 cases; female: 51.6%) and factors related to ME/CFS were severe illness, smoking and alcohol drinking habits, and fewer vaccinations. The frequency of ME/CFS decreased from 23.9% in the Preceding period to 13.7% in the Delta-dominant period and to 3.3% in the Omicron-dominant period. Fatigue and headache were commonly frequent complaints in the ME/CFS group, and the frequency of poor concentration in the ME/CFS group was higher in the Omicron period. Serum ferritin levels were significantly higher in female patients in the ME/CFS group infected in the Preceding period. In the ME/CFS group, the proportion of patients complaining of brain fog significantly increased from 22.2% in the Preceding period to 47.9% in the Delta period and to 81.3% in the Omicron period. The percentage of patients who had received vaccination was lower in the ME/CFS group than the non-ME/CFS group over the study period, whereas there were no differences in the vaccination rate between the groups in each period.
The proportion of long COVID patients who developed ME/CFS strictly diagnosed by three criteria was lower among patients infected in the Omicron phase than among patients infected in the other phases, while the proportion of patients with brain fog inversely increased. Attention should be paid to the variant-dependent trends of ME/CFS triggered by long COVID (300 words).
与新冠病毒感染相关的肌痛性脑脊髓炎/慢性疲劳综合征（ME/CFS）的特征仍不明确。为阐明长期新冠病毒感染诱发的ME/CFS的临床趋势，我们研究了2021年2月至2023年7月期间在我校医院门诊就诊患者的数据。
根据三项诊断标准，将长期新冠病毒感染患者分为ME/CFS组和非ME/CFS组。
长期新冠病毒感染患者中ME/CFS的患病率为8.4%（739例中的62例；女性：51.6%），与ME/CFS相关的因素有重症、吸烟和饮酒习惯以及疫苗接种较少。ME/CFS的发生率从前一时期的23.9%降至德尔塔毒株占主导时期的13.7%，再降至奥密克戎毒株占主导时期的3.3%。疲劳和头痛是ME/CFS组常见的主诉，在奥密克戎时期，ME/CFS组注意力不集中的发生率更高。在前一时期感染的ME/CFS组女性患者中，血清铁蛋白水平显著更高。在ME/CFS组，主诉脑雾的患者比例从前一时期的22.2%显著增至德尔塔时期的47.9%，再增至奥密克戎时期的81.3%。在研究期间，ME/CFS组接种疫苗的患者百分比低于非ME/CFS组，而各时期两组之间的疫苗接种率没有差异。
根据三项标准严格诊断为ME/CFS的长期新冠病毒感染患者比例，在奥密克戎阶段感染的患者中低于其他阶段感染的患者，而脑雾患者的比例则相反增加。应关注长期新冠病毒感染引发的ME/CFS的变异依赖性趋势（300字）。
