Abstract
Fibromyalgia is the most common of the central sensitivity syndromes affecting 2–5% of the adult population in the United States. This pain amplification syndrome has enormous societal impact as measured by work absenteeism, decreased work productivity, disability and injury compensation and over-utilization of healthcare resources. Multiple studies have shown that early diagnosis of this condition can improve patient outlook and redirect valuable healthcare resources towards more appropriate targeted therapy. Efforts have been made towards improving diagnostic accuracy through updated criteria. The search for biomarkers for diagnosis and verification of Fibromyalgia is an ongoing process. Inadequacies with current diagnostic criteria for this condition have fueled these efforts for identification of a reproducible marker that can verify this disease in a highly sensitive, specific and reproducible manner. This review focuses on areas of research for biomarkers in fibromyalgia and suggests that future efforts might benefit from approaches that utilize arrays of biomarkers to identify this disorder that presents with a diverse clinical phenotype.
Highlights
Evidence of familial associations has been documented in FM with corroboration that first-degree relatives of individuals with FM patients are more likely to suffer from comorbid conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), migraines, and other regional pain syndromes [32,33,34,35]
Ragged red fibers with abnormal mitochondria is a characteristic finding of other conditions; most frequently mitochondrial myopathy. Some of these histologic abnormalities have been associated with clinical symptoms; for example, decreased capillary numbers have been associated with pain, thickened capillary endothelium is associated with fatigue and abnormal mitochondria is associated with weakness
There are many promising research fronts that are being pursued for identification of a biomarker in FM
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines biomarkers as: “characteristics that can be objectively measured and evaluated as an indication of normal or pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention“ [1]. Studies that show alterations between diseased and healthy states have discovered differentiating metabolites. An independent study that replicates and validates the prior study helps to classify the differentiating metabolites as a true biomarker [2]. Taking these definitions and criteria into consideration, it is evident that Fibromyalgia (FM) is a condition with no known biomarkers
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