AN international ME expert visiting Dublin has given hope to people suffering from the debilitating condition. Dr Les Simpson, of the department of general practice in the University of Otago, New Zealand, offered the opportunity to participate in a testing programme which could pinpoint the cause of the condition.
He has already taken blood samples from people with ME, (myalgic encephalomyelitis) from all over the world. He told The Irish Times the test gave hope to those who had previously been told there was no medical reason for their illness.
Up to 200 people attended a meeting organised by the Irish ME support group in Dublin on Tuesday night to hear Dr Simpson, who is in Ireland for three days. He took some blood samples which will be examined at the university in New Zealand.
Ms Vera Kindlon, chairwoman of the ME group, said there had been an "incredible response".
Said Dr Simpson: "I first met people with ME in 1984. I discussed the nature of their symptoms with them and what might have caused them. At the end of that exercise, I was rather shattered to find that I had no reason and there was no thread running through the cases.
He believes people with ME have a blood flow problem. By using a blood filtration process he was able to show "that they were different from regular blood donors".
"We were able to show the presence of pathological change in people with ME. We did a similar study and found that blood from people with multiple sclerosis got the same result."
He explained that red blood cells were not all the same shape and peripheral blood cells could be classified into six shape classes. "In chronic diseases, there are changes in the proportions of the different shape classes and this correlates with the severity of the symptoms. We looked at a wide range of disorders in which tiredness is a problem and found that they all had changed red cells."
He said there were two categories of ME - acute and chronic. Some acute sufferers experienced a loss of symptoms within 24 hours after an injection of vitamin B12, while chronic sufferers benefited from doses of evening primrose oil which improved capillary blood flow.