A prospective study of lung function in newly diagnosed infants with cystic fibrosis

Abstract

Recent standardisation of the rapid thoraco-abdominal compression technique (RTC) for measuring the maximal expiratory flow at functional residual capacity (V'maxFRC), and collation of data from 455 healthy infants (male=224) measured on 654 occasions in 3 centres internationally, has led to the availability of gender-specific reference data with which to compare the lung function of infants with suspected airway disease. The airway function of infants with cystic fibrosis (CF) was compared to these reference data in order to assess lung function at diagnosis. V'maxFRC was measured in newly diagnosed CF infants recruited from 5 specialist centres as part of an ongoing prospective study of lo..