Question About Cystic Fibrosis & Infants?
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at
9:36 pm
Kat asked:
My friend had a little girl 2 weeks ago and today @ her 2 week check up she was told that the CF test they do in the hospital @ birth came back positive and they are re-testing and she will have results in 3 weeks. They also told her there is a high “false positive” rate.
Has anyone heard of this?
I am a CF carrier, and had to go to genetic counseling when my husband and I were in infertility treatment (he ended up not being a carrier) and never heard of this screen on infants…do they do it to them all? Are there false positives?? I just want to ease her mind.
Filed under: Cystic Fibrosis
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My ten year old cousin has CF, and I am a volunteer for CFF. I have never heard of a high ‘false positive’ rate, but that doesn’t mean some tests aren’t false. Infant screening needs to be done in every state, in fact some states require it by law now. The sooner they find it, the better off the child will be, because of new medicines that can lessen damage done by the disease. Jonathan at about 2 weeks old had projectile vomiting, they actually treated him for something else. He continued to have problems and gained no weight, finally at 2 months my family suggested they try something else. They found he had CF. If they find she does have it, post any other questions that you might have and I’ll try to help you out as much as possible.
discuss the specific questions with your OB.
My son has CF and was a false negative at first, then they did genetic testing found the mutated gene and his 2nd sweat test was positive.
I don’t know if there is a high false positive rate but it happens.
As far as the cf screen, it is becoming more common for the CF test to be a “normal” testing for infants. In 2004 12 states make the CF screen normal for newborns (not sure how many more have started)