title: Course of cystic fibrosis in black patients.
abstract: Seventeen black patients showed typical sweat gland, gastrointestinal, and pulmonary manifestations of cystic fibrosis. There was an unusually high incidence of meconium ileus equivalent (35%). Three infant siblings of patients in this study had died of cystic fibrosis prior to referral of a family member to this center. One patient died at age four years after emotional problems interfered with the treatment program; status asthmaticus played a major role in his terminal respiratory failure. The remainder of the patients have had substantially less morbidity from pulmonary disease than a comparable, much larger group of white patients. Only one patient, age 28, who is married and employed full-time has severe pulmonary involvement as assessed by pulmonary function studies and chest roentgenogram. The 16 surviving patients have a mean age of 13 1/2 years after a mean follow-up period of 10 years. If black patients with cystic fibrosis survive infancy, they then, as a group, may have a relatively good prognosis.
mesh_terms: D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests