Scientists at University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Norwich Medical School. have made a ‘breakthrough’ in the diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS); by developing the first-ever blood test for the condition.
ME/CFS is currently diagnosed solely on symptoms, often leading to many patients going undiagnosed for years – and also to overdiagnosis.
ME/CFS is a serious and often disabling illness characterised by extreme fatigue that is not relieved by rest,” said lead researcher Professor Dmitry Pshezhetskiy.
“We know that some patients report being ignored or even told that their illness is ‘all in their head’, with no definitive tests, many patients have gone undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years.
The team from UEA and Oxford Biodynamics (OBD) set out to examine how DNA is folded in patients diagnosed with the condition, which might provide tell-tale signs of ME/CFS.
Using OBD’s EpiSwitch 3D Genomics technology, they looked at blood samples from 47 patients with severe ME/CFS and 61 healthy adults.
A unique pattern that appears consistently in people with ME/CFS that is not seen in healthy people was discovered, enabling them to develop the test.
Writing in the Journal of Translational Medicine (Hunter et al, 2025), the authors said the test has a sensitivity – or the likelihood of a test being positive if that patient has the condition – of 92 per cent.
And it has a specificity – the probability the test will rule out negative cases – of 98 per cent, they added.
Prof Pshezhetskiy added: “This is a significant step forward, for the first time, we have a simple blood test that can reliably identify ME/CFS – potentially transforming how we diagnose and manage this complex disease.”
