Can Analagous Studies Of The Brain In Poliomyelitis Lend Credibility To Sufferers From ME/CFS?
Using light microscopy and the available histological techniques for studying post-mortem material from patients in 1948, Bodian (5) demonstrated that the main impact of polio virus infection was upon the Brain Stem, an area through which almost every important neurological message must pass. A more recent development has been the re-discovery in 1982, of the post-polio syndrome (first recorded in 1875) indicating that survivors of acute polio virus infection, despite apparent stability for some 40 years, may present with new symptoms of incapacitating fatigue, muscle pain and cognitive disturbance, often indistinguishable clinically from ME/CFS. A remarkable series of research papers from 1983 onwards by Bruno (6) and colleagues, using modern investigational techniques in both illnesses, provides strong supportive evidence of similar abnormalities of brain function leading to movement disturbances, anomalies of hormone and neurotransmitter function and of the electrical and chemical a
