Forgot your password?
Please enter your username or email address. Instructions for resetting the password will be immediately emailed to you.
Please note: While some information will still be current in a year, other information may already be out of date in three months time. If you are in any doubt, please feel free to ask.
Reliability of the sweat test
- Question
- My 6 years old son has been diagnosed with bronchectasis. The chlild, apart from a chronic cough, does not have any other symptoms and is developing normally. Our doctor recommended for the child to have a sweat test, which was negative. Does the sweat test suffice to safley exlcude CF?
- Answer
- Dear friend,
The sweat test is 98% reliable to safely exclude the possiblily of C. F. assumed that it is performed by an experienced center, using the pilocarpine ionotophoresis to measure the Chloride concentration in the sweat. In case of doubts, it is advisable to repeat the test under optimal conditions. However, you must try to eliminate other possible causes of bronchectasis, such as immunodeficiencies, primary ciliary diskenisia, etc. If these possibilities are eliminated, and if there is a strong clinical suspicion, you could try to detect some CF mutations which are combined with a normal sweat test, or do a nasal potential difference measurement.
Yours friendly,
Dr. Stavros Doudounakis - 04.10.2011
