Mumbai hospital Introduces new test for cystic fibrosis

In a first, the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children in Mumbai has introduced gold standard sweat chloride testing for children, adolescents, and young adults to confirm or rule out the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis, a progressive, genetic disease leading to persistent lung infections and breathing problems.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) impacts the cells involved in making mucus, sweat, and digestive fluids. The symptoms of CF are salty skin or sweat, sinusitis, wheezing, persistent cough, diarrhea, lung infections like pneumonia, bronchitis, and weight loss, greasy and bulky stools.

The hospital launched this as a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis in children and adults can help in achieving good outcomes and treatment must be given soon.

CF is a complex disease that takes a toll on the respiratory and digestive systems. Every year more than 100 new children seek work up and treatment for CF.

Dr Parmarth Chandane who manages Paediatric respiratory department at Wadia hospital added, “One will be asked to undergo the tests when there is a family history of cystic fibrosis or symptoms pointing towards Cystic Fibrosis. Before this test, any creams and lotions should not be applied to the skin for 24 hours. The sweat test can be helpful to determine the amount of chloride ion in sweat. Those with cystic fibrosis can have a high amount of chloride in their sweat. In a sweat test, the patient’s skin is stimulated to generate sweat that is absorbed into a special collector, the test gets over in half-an-hour and then the analysis is done. If the patient is detected with a high chloride level of more than 60 millimoles per liter, then there is a likelihood of cystic fibrosis. This gold standard test is relatively cheap and results are available immediately as compared to the genetic test (where the results will be available only after 3-4 weeks and come at an extremely prohibitive cost)”.

This is a gold standard test, no further testing for confirmation of diagnosis would be required.

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