Researchers revealed that computed tomography (CT) imaging, when combined with pulmonary function testing (PFT) and developed into a composite score, offered a new, more sensitive way of determining treatment effects in young patients with cystic fibrosis. The group consisted of young persons who had suffered little or no loss of pulmonary function from their illness. The investigators developed the new approach while assessing a new drug for cystic fibrosis (CF) in 21 young patients over 1 year. The composite CT/PFT score that they developed during the trial combined aspects of functional assessment (the PFT included percent of predicted lung function testing) plus structural analysis of the lung with high resolution computed tomography. They found that their new technique offered them a greater ability to detect changes produced by therapeutic intervention than did the individual components alone. (CF is an inherited disease resulting from two defective genes. Starting at birth, certain glands begin to produce abnormal secretions in nearly all of the glands that secret into a duct (exocrine glands). The lungs are one of the main organs affected.) The authors point out that their findings suggest the potential advantages of using the CT/pulmonary function composite scoring in future clinical trials. However, they note that their conclusions were obtained in a small sample (21 subjects over 1 year) who had CF with minimal decreased pulmonary function and lung disease as determined by high resolution computerized scoring. They urged tests with a larger sample of children and adults who had more extensive CF lung disease. The study appears in the first issue for September 2003 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

NEW TEST DEVELOPED TO DETERMINE INCREASED MORTALITY RISK IN INT
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Contact: Cathy Carlomagno
ccarlomagno@thoracic.org
212-315-6442
American Thoracic Society
27-Aug-2003