Journal of IiME Volume 7 Issue 1 GUIDELINES One of the basic problems with treatment of ME is the original diagnosis of the illness. Invariably it is too late and the current environment in the UK means that diagnosis may cover a broad range of illnesses with similar symptoms which are brought together under one diagnosis - ME - a deadend of a medical diagnosis by a medical community which cannot even agree on a name. In order to establish correct and early diagnosis there needs to be a standard clinical diagnosis method used throughout the country. This area is currently clouded with up to four sets of diagnostic criteria being available for use. When a doctor or paediatrician gives a diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis then they do this currently by exclusion of other illnesses and by means of basic blood tests. Diagnostic guidelines are meant to be a means to assist in diagnosis. Another important distinction is If a diagnosis is given to a patient based on a different interpretation of an illness then the diagnosis may be flawed. Worse still patients might be misdiagnosed and a treatable illness may be missed for years in some cases. Invest in ME support the use of either the so called Canadian Consensus Criteria (CCC) or the later (May 2013) version of these guidelines the International Consensus Criteria (ICC). For some time Invest in ME have been responsible for distributing printed copies of the Canadian Consensus Guidelines in the UK. The charity earns nothing from this – we merely attempt to recover the cost of the original printing. The Canadian guidelines were recently endorsed by the US CFS Advisory Committee. between guidelines used for research and those used for clinical diagnosis. One may think these would always be the same. A clinician may treat a wide selection of patients but researchers need cohorts that are as homogeneous as possible. Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) More recently the International Consensus Guidelines (ICC) has been produced and is available in printed form from Invest in ME. Contact info@investinme.org to order. www.investinme.org Page 21 of 36
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