Are microbiome differences driven by ME/CFS disease duration?

Determine whether ME/CFS disease duration, rather than age or other confounders, drives the observed pronounced and variable differences in gut microbiome composition between short-term (<4 years) and long-term (>10 years) ME/CFS patient cohorts.

Background

The paper compared gut microbiome profiles across short-term and long-term ME/CFS patients and controls. After testing, age was not found to be a confounder for the observed microbiome differences. The authors therefore posited that disease duration may be the underlying factor explaining why early-stage patients exhibit more pronounced and variable microbiome alterations than long-term patients and controls.

Validating this conjecture requires longitudinal or carefully controlled cohort designs to isolate disease duration effects from other variables.