[Allergy among Japanese patients with chronic fatigue syndrome]

Allergy is a common feature of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Because of this strong association, we attempted to explore the prevalence of allergies among Japanese patients with CFS. Of the present 18 patients, 78% had allergies during their premorbid and/or postmorbid conditions. Their allergies were mainly cutaneous reactions including drug allergies and 43% of the patients had 2 or more allergic reactions. In the case of a premorbid condition, allergies improved spontaneously after onset of CFS. Clinical manifestations of CFS, however, became worse during the period of an association with allergies. Immunologic tests, including peripheral blood lymphocyte-subsets, blastogenesis, natural killer-cell functions and cytokine-assays, were not any correlation between both patients with and without allergies.