The objectives of this study were to gather information regarding demographic and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with either fibromyalgia (FM) or chronic fatigue (CFS) following hepatitis B vaccination (HBVv) and furthermore to apply the recently suggested criteria of autoimmune (auto-inflammatory) syndromes induced by adjuvants (ASIA), in the aim of identifying common characteristics that may suggest an association between fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and HBV vaccination.
The [average] latency period from the last dose of HBVv to onset of symptoms was 38.6 ± 79.4 days, ranging from days to a year.
Manifestations that were commonly reported included neurological manifestations (84.2 %), musculoskeletal (78.9 %), psychiatric (63.1 %), fatigue (63.1 %), gastrointestinal complains (58 %) and mucocutaneous manifestations (36.8 %). Autoantibodies were detected in 71 % of patients tested. All patients fulfilled the ASIA criteria.
This study suggests that in some cases CFS and FM can be temporally related to immunization, as part of ASIA syndrome.
The appearance of adverse event during immunization, the presence of autoimmune susceptibility and higher titers of autoantibodies all can be suggested as risk factors.