Abby+M.

 Cystic Fibrosis is more commonly known as CF. However, it's scientific name is Mucoviscidosis. 

What is CF caused by ? - Cystic Fibrosis is caused by a defect in the CFTR gene. All characterisitics of CF are also caused by a mutation on chromasome 7. You can only get this disease if you inherit two copies of the mutated gene.

What are the symptoms ?  - In newborns, the symptoms can be things such as failure to grow, frequent respiratory infections, and persistent diarrhea. In children/young adults, the symptoms include a high consistency of salt in their sweat, thick sputum, delayed growth, frequent coughing or weezing, many chest and sinus infections, and clubbing of fingertips or toes.  How does it effect the patient ? - After being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, the patient will have to take pills (enzymes) before meals, and they may feel uneasy about their cough, but its really not extremely noticible. They will also have to stick to certain meal plans. Dispite these things however, they can live fairly long for someone with a genetic disorder. The normal life expectancy for someone with CF is approximately 35 years.

 How common is it ? - CF occurs in about one in every 2000 births. above is an x-ray of what a childs lungs look like with CF Did anyone famous have this disorder ? - Albert Einstein was thought to have died of CF.

How is it diagnosed ? - Doctors will do the "sweat test" to measure the amount of salt in the person's sweat. Instead of having the person run to produce sweat, they use a sweat-inducing chemical called pilocarpine to collect perspiration from the forearm. However, for newborns, they normally just do a blood test to check for mutated CFTR genes.

Can Cystic Fibrosis be detected prenatally ? - By doing either an amniocentesis or chronic villi sampling, you may very well be able to be aware if the baby will have CF.

What are the treatments ?  - There is no cure for CF, but the treatments that can be done to improve the health of CF patients are CPT (chest physical therapy), doing aerobic exersizes daily, and also types of antibiotics can be taken. What are some support groups ? - Cystic Fibrosis Worldwide, The Starlight Children's Foundation, Liv For A Cure, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, are all fantastic support groups for anyone with CF, or trying to help anyone with CF.

**Below is a video made by the cystic fibrosis foundation to show the process of doing the sweat test.

media type="youtube" key="8UCWoz6gUp8" height="364" width="445"**

Sources : [] [] []