Nancy Klimas



Nancy Klimas, MD, is an American researcher and physician who is the Director at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She is, also: Director of Clinical Immunology Research, Miami VAMC; Professor of Medicine, Department of Clinical Immunology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University; and Chair, Department of Clinical Immunology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University; Professor Emerita, University of Miami, School of Medicine.

She is one of the authors of the 2011 case definition, International Consensus Criteria, as well as, one of the authors of the 2003 Canadian Consensus Criteria for ME/CFS, published as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome:Clinical Working Case Definition,Diagnostic and Treatment Protocols

Likewise, she was one of the experts on the "Committee on the Diagnostic Criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" that was convened for the 2015 Institute of Medicine report.

Klimas served as past President of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis from 2004-2009.

Awards

 * 2014, Rudy Perpich Senior Lectureship Award, presented to a distinguished CFS/FMS scientist, physician or healthcare worker awarded by IACFS/ME
 * 2011, Nelson Gantz Outstanding Clinician Award awarded to a physician who emulates Nelson Gantz's clinical acumen, his passion for medicine, and his empathy for persons with CFS/FM awarded by IACFS/ME

Notable studies

 * 2016, Illness progression in chronic fatigue syndrome: a shifting immune baseline
 * 2016, Tracking post-infectious fatigue in clinic using routine Lab tests."ABSTRACT:'BACKGROUND: While biomarkers for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are beginning to emerge they typically require a highly specialized clinical laboratory. We hypothesized that subsets of commonly measured laboratory markers used in combination could support the diagnosis of post-infectious CFS (PI-CFS) in adolescents following infectious mononucleosis (IM) and help determine who might develop persistence of symptoms. METHODS: Routine clinical laboratory markers were collected prospectively in 301 mono-spot positive adolescents, 4 % of whom developed CFS (n = 13). At 6, 12, and 24 months post-diagnosis with IM, 59 standard tests were performed including metabolic profiling, liver enzyme panel, hormone profiles, complete blood count (CBC), differential white blood count (WBC), salivary cortisol, and urinalysis....RESULTS: Lower ACTH levels at 6 months post-IM diagnosis were highly predictive of CFS (AUC p = 0.02). ACTH levels in CFS overlapped with healthy controls at 12 months, but again showed a trend towards a deficiency at 24 months. Conversely, estradiol levels depart significantly from normal at 12 months only to recover at 24 months (AUC p = 0.02). Finally, relative neutrophil count showed a significant departure from normal at 24 months in CFS (AUC p = 0.01). Expression of these markers evolved differently over time between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest that serial assessment of stress and sex hormones as well as the relative proportion of innate immune cells measured using standard clinical laboratory tests may support the diagnosis of PI-CFS in adolescents with IM.'"
 * 2016, Dr. Nancy Klimas, Dr. Irma Rey and several other researchers studied patients who developed gastroparesis following a viral history of flu-like symptoms or gastroenteritis. Nine at of the eleven patients studied (82 %) had active enterovirus infection on gastric biopsies.  The study conclusion was that "antiviral and/or immune therapies against enterovirus seem to be favorable, as most of our patients had resolution of their gastroparesis symptoms after treatment. This is the first study to identify enterovirus as a possible infectious etiology of idiopathic gastroparesis.
 * 2015, Findings from a clinical and laboratory database developed for discovery of pathogenic mechanisms in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Abstract
 * 2015, Chronic fatigue syndrome and co-morbid and consequent conditions: evidence from a multi-site clinical epidemiology study. Abstract
 * 2012, Minimum data elements for research reports on CFS.
 * 2012, Biomarkers for chronic fatigue.
 * 2010, Plasma neuropeptide Y: a biomarker for symptom severity in chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2003, Identification of ambiguities in the 1994 chronic fatigue syndrome research case definition and recommendations for resolution
 * 2001, Cytokine and Other Immunologic Markers in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Their Relation to Neuropsychological Factors

Interviews & talks
There are many videos on YouTube of Nancy Klimas speaking about her work.


 * 2014 ME/CFS Diagnosis and Name with Dr. Nancy Klimas
 * 2014 ME/CFS Treatment Options Part 1 with Dr. Nancy Klimas
 * 2014 ME/CFS Treatment Options Part 2 with Dr. Nancy Klimas
 * ME/CFS and Exercise: VO2 Max Testing with Nancy Klimas M.D. PREVIEW
 * 2011 ME/CFS Management A Pathogenesis Based Approach (sponsored by ANZMES)

Quotations

 * "They experience a level of disability equal to that of patients with late-stage AIDS and patients undergoing chemotherapy"

Open Letter to The Lancet
Two open letters to the editor of The Lancet urged the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal had published in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Klimas, along with 41 colleagues in the ME/CFS field, signed the second letter.
 * 10 February 2016, An open letter to The Lancet, again - Virology blog

Online presence

 * PubMed - Nancy Klimas
 * Nova Southeasterm University - Nancy Klimas