Lipid peroxidation is elevated in female patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a debilitating disease of unclear cause and pathogenesis. It affects mostly women from lower socioeconomic classes. There is mounting evidence that oxidative stress, specifically lipid peroxidation (LPO) contributes to the disease process. We investigated levels of LPO and its possible consequences for these patients.


METHODS
Forty women aged 15-45 years who fulfilled the 1994 Centers for Disease Control's diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) with no comorbidities were recruited and were age matched to a control group of 40 healthy women. Levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL cholesterol (LDLc), HDL cholesterol (HDLc), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured.


RESULTS
Although initial statistical analyses showed no differences between groups (P=.345), when subdivided according to the level of MDA, a difference was found in the subgroup of high-level MDA (P=.034). There was a negative correlation between HDLc and MDA levels (r=0.3; P=.046), a positive correlation between TG and MDA levels (r=0.4; P=.006), and lower levels of HDL cholesterol in the CFS group (P=.036).


CONCLUSIONS
High levels of MDA, positively correlated with TG and lower HDL levels, might be indicative of proatherogenic events in female CFS patients, a group not otherwise considered a risk for atherosclerosis.
Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Clinical Center Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia. tomkis@eunet.rs
Snezana
S
Brkic
Slavica
S
Tomic
Daniela
D
Maric
Aleksandra
A
Novakov Mikic
Vesna
V
Turkulov
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation / Q000502:physiology*; D008315:Malondialdehyde / Q000097:blood; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
D014280:Triglycerides; D008315:Malondialdehyde; D002784:Cholesterol