Dr. Benjamin Natelson and the New Jersey CFS/FM Center associated with UNDMJ, has begun study of "brain blood flow during postural challenges in CFS."

Natelson is currently looking for people with CFS as well as healthy controls to participate in this study. Those interested must first complete a confidential health screening form.

The purpose of the study is to understand why standing produces a worsening of symptoms in many CFS patients. This experiment is based on two experimentally determined facts. Fact #1: patients on the more severe end of the CFS illness spectrum have cardiac capacities that are less than patients on the less severe end of the illness spectrum. In other words, they have a reduced ability of the heart to provide blood to vital organs, which may explain why effort worsens symptoms in CFS. Fact #2: some CFS patients have reduced brain blood flow compared to healthy controls, which may be even worse while standing. 

These two facts suggest a biological basis for chronic fatigue and for why symptoms worsen when patients stand for prolonged periods of time. This study focuses on the relation of heart function to brain blood flow and the effects of standing on brain blood flow. 

The study employs functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. To receive an MRI scan a person must lay in a confined space, so claustrophia is an exclusion for this study. The presence of metal in the body (e.g. metal pins) is another exclusion.

Although subjects participating in functional neuroimaging have to lie flat on their backs, Natelson has developed an experimental method that mimics standing called "lower body negative pressure"—allowing researchers to see the relation between heart function and brain blood flow during simulated standing.