Normal carnitine levels in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Abstract Background: Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) complain of muscle pain and impaired exercise tolerance. Previous studies show that this is due to systemic carnitine deficiency. We investigated the hypothesis that carnitine deficiency plays an important role in CFS in female CFS patients and compared their results with neighbourhood controls. Methods: The level of total carnitine, free carnitine, acylcarnitine and carnitine esters were measured in 25 female CFS patients and 25 healthy matched neighbourhood controls in a blinded fashion. Results: The previously reported decreased level of acylcarnitine in CFS patients was not confirmed. There were also no significant differences in levels of total carnitine, free carnitine and 20 carnitine esters between CFS patients and controls. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that serum carnitine deficiency does not contribute to or causes the symptoms in many CFS patients.