Veronika Pokorná, Milan Buc
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disorder of unknown aetiology. It is characterized by concurrence of typical symptoms, which are self-reported by the patient, however they are difficult to verify by objective methods; these problems resulted in questioning of the syndrome by some authors. These symptoms include unexplained fatigue that is not improved by rest, cognitive dysfunction, postexertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, joint and muscle pain, headache, sore throat, tender cervical or axillary lymph nodes. However, recently, some objective findings were reported, such as changes in the grey matter of the central nervous system. Unclear etio-pathogenesis of the disease sets limits to the treatment, reducing it to management of symptoms, although the therapy with some drugs, such as carnitine and its esters and macrolide antibiotics, respectively, is promissing.