Journal of IiME Volume 4 Issue 1 www.investinme.org SPEAKERS and ABSTRACTS of the 5th INVEST in ME INTERNATIONAL ME/CFS CONFERENCE Professor Leonard Jason PhD Prof. of Clin. & Community Psychology, Director, Center for Community Research, DePaul University, Chicago Professor Leonard Jason, Ph.D., is among the most prolific of all CFIDS researchers. For more than a decade, Professor Jason and his team at DePaul University’s Centre for Community Research have worked to define the scope and impact of CFS/ME worldwide. Professor Jason was Vice President of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (now the IACFS/ME) and has been a key driver of CFS research since 1991, and is uniquely positioned to support collaboration between CFS researchers, patients, and government decision makers. His studies have shown that the direct and indirect costs of ME/CFS amount to $20 billion in the U.S. each year, and more than 1 million people suffer from ME/CFS as opposed to the estimated 20,000 people originally reported by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Professor Leonard Jason – Abstract: The scientific enterprise depends on reliable and valid ways of classifying patients into diagnostic categories, and this critical research activity can enable investigators to better understand etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment approaches for CFS and other disorders. When diagnostic categories lack reliability and accuracy, the quality of treatment and clinical research can be significantly compromised. A misdiagnosis may lead to improper treatment and in cases of severe illness, the matter of an incorrect diagnosis can have serious consequences. In other words, the validity (i.e., usefulness) of a diagnostic category is inherently limited by its reliability. Therefore, to the extent to which a diagnostic category is unreliable, a limit is placed on its validity for any clinical research. The poor understanding of the pathophysiology of ME/CFS may be due case definitions lacking reliability and validity, and improving the case definition Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) may prevent complications in identifying biological markers in this illness. In this presentation, issues concerning reliability of clinical diagnosis will be presented, and they are complex and have important research and practical implications Professor Nora Chapman Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Pathology and Microbiology University of Nebraska Medical Center 986495 Nebraska Medical Center Professor Nora Chapman is a Research Scientist at the University of Nebraska Enterovirus Research Laboratory and Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre. Professor Chapman studies persistent coxsackie infections in murine models of chronic myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. She and her associates have demonstrated that selection of defective enterovirus in heart and other tissues leads to persistent infections despite active antiviral immune responses. Dr. Chapman is presently studying the mode of selection of these viruses and the effects of replication of these viruses upon infected cell function. Dr. Chapman and her associates at the University of Nebraska are further investigating Dr. John Chia’s work in regards to enterovirus in the gut biopsies. Professor Nora Chapman – Abstract: Persistent Enterovirus Infections Enterovirus infections have been found in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Enteroviruses are readily cleared by the immune response in most individuals. However work on inflammatory heart disease has demonstrated the presence of enteroviral RNA in human hearts after enterovirus infection cannot be detected by cytopathic assays. We have demonstrated that this type of Page 46/56
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