Intervention in infants with cystic fibrosis key to slowing p...(ecently in the United Kingdom and the Un...),Health

"Ninety percent of those with CF can't absorb the fat in their diet, and people with this condition who are better nourished live longer," said Dr. Ranganathan. "[Those patients] should take manufactured pancreatic enzymes with every meal that contains fat, so they can have a good high-fat diet with lots of calories," he added. "Although the patients in our study were well-nourished, they still had diminished lung function. However, we can't be certain whether or not fat malabsorption that occurs prior to starting enzymes at diagnosis contributes to diminished lung function later on in early childhood."

While the FEV tests were conducted according to standardized guidelines recently developed by the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society, if better tests for lung function in newborns could be developed, it might be possible to determine that lung function is not in fact normal during the first six months, Dr. Ranganathan said. "Our paper really indicated that lung function is diminished after the first six months, but appears to be normal in the first six, which is good news and bad news," he said. "It's bad news because even with the best current treatment we don't seem able to prevent diminished lung function occurring in later infancy. The good news is that if we can diagnose infants with this condition early by newborn screening, we have shown for the first time that there appears to be a window of opportunity in the first six months of life to intervene to prevent diminished lung function." The findings may inform future researchand, it is hoped, clinical practices.

As a result of this research, Dr. Ranganathan and colleagues have developed a research team called The Australian Respiratory Early Surveillance Team fo
'/>"/>