CF

Question

My daughter is 4.5 years old. She has been diagnosed to suffer from asthma at the age of 3 years. She is ill very often, every moth at least one time and nearly every time she has a pneumonia! She is spitting then always very much of a thick yellowish mucus that is like chewing-gum. She has had a sweat test last year that had been negative, thank goodness. Now my question: can she suffer from CF in spite of this and would it be better to carry out the test again?

Answer

Hello,
you report about your 4.5 year-old daughter, who has had the diagnosis of asthma at the age of 3 years. You have nearly every month an infection of the lung which was interpreted very often to be a pneumonia. Due to the very viscous yellowish mucus, a sweat test had been performed, that was negative. You request, if the test should be repeated preventively, as the complaints persist unchangedly.
The following can be said on your question: in a child suffering from asthma it should not come as often to an infection of the lung that is regarded as a pneumonia. Therefore it has to be requested, if you are treated with your child in a specialized center for lung diseases of the childhood and if the sweat test had been done in a specialized center, that is a certified CF-center. Unfortunately, sweat tests are carried out with different methods. In rare cases it would be possible, that a sweat test shows a false negative result. In order to make sure and to calm down you should therefore request another sweat test.
We wish you and your daughter all the best.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. H.-G. Posselt

15.05.2013