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Table 1 Baseline characteristics

From: Muscle sodium content in patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Subjects

Patients with ME/CFS

(n = 6)

Controls

(n = 6)

P-value ME/CFS versus Controls

Sex

Female

Female

Age (years)

30.3 (7.6)

27.3 (4.8)

0.4308

BMI (kg/m2)

21.6 (4.1)

23.4 (5.1)

0.5253

Bell Score [0–100]

30 (6.3)

Chalder Fatigue Score [0–33]

29.5 (1.4)

Systolic blood pressure baseline

108.0 (11.1)

115.7 (8.0)

0.1997

Diastolic blood pressure baseline

63.2 (7.5)

62.0 (2.8)

0.7295

Mean arterial pressure baseline

77.3 (8.8)

78.7 (5.1)

0.7560

Heart rate baseline

63.8 (7.9)

64.7 (6.0)

0.8411

Systolic blood pressure after exercise

119.8 (12.0)

125.5 (10.8)

0.4116

Diastolic blood pressure after exercise

72.2 (11.9)

71.0 (3.3)

0.8215

Mean arterial pressure after exercise

90.7 (8.4)

87 (4.9)

0.3777

Heart rate after exercise

76.5 (6.7)

69.8 (4.2)

0.0672

Salt questionnaire [37]

   

“How much do you like salty food?”

6.0 (0.9)

5.7 (2.9)

0.7961

“How often do you add more salt to your food?”

3.7 (2.0)

4.7 (3.8)

0.5819

“How much do you like salty snacks such as crisps?”

5.5 (1.4)

5.3 (3.4)

0.9146

“How often do you eat in fast food restaurants?”

2.0 (1.5)

2.3 (0.8)

0.6510

“How much money do you usually spend there?” (€)

3.8 (4.9)

7.0 (4.3)

0.2640

“How often do you drink beverages without additional flavour?”

7.7 (2.7)

6.2 (3.7)

0.4438

“How much do you drink daily?” (L)

2.1 (0.4)

2.1 (0.4)

> 0.9999

  1. ME/CFS, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Mean values with standard deviation (SD) in brackets, unless stated otherwise. Questionnaire on a scale from 1–10 (1 = I strongly agree; 10 = I strongly disagree). P value refers to comparison of both groups