CHRONIC-FATIGUE-SYNDROME - CLINICAL AND E VOLUTIVE STUDY OF 28 CASES

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is an entity of unknown eti opathogenesis without specific markers. The diagnosis is based on clin ical criteria. There are few studies evaluating the natural evolution and prognosis-related factors in CFS. OBJECTIVES: al to evaluate the o utcome of patients suffering from CFS, and b) to detect predictive fac tors associated with a better prognosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Clinica l records of all patients diagnosed of CFS between January 1986 and De cember 1992 were retrospectively reviewed. Of these patients, we inclu ded those fulfilling the CDC criteria for CFS, with a follow-up period greater than one year. We evaluated epidemiological, clinical and evo lutive data recorded by their usual physicians. Moreover, the patients were interviewed in order to know their own appreciation with respect to their current clinical status, as well as their present working si tuation. RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients were included in the present s tudy. Their mean age was 38 +/- 7. Seventy-five percent of them were w omen. The mean time of clinical follow-up was of 3,2 +/- 1,8 years. Ac cording to evaluation, 21% of patients improved or became asymptomatic . A similar percentage (28%) of improvement was obtained from the inte rview. Forty-eight percent of cases had transitory or definitive labor al incapacity. Regarding to prognostic factors, we could not find any statistical differences among the analyzed variables except for marita l status. In this variable, married patients had better outcome than u nmarried patients. CONCLUSION: CFS is an entity with a poor outcome, s ince it evolves towards to chronicity in an important number of cases. In addition, strong functional disability may be present, leading fre quently to laboral incapacity.