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- wasting
- survival
- cystic fibrosis
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- pulmonary rehabilitation
- British Thoracic Society
Sharma and colleagues report the survival of 584 patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) attending the Royal Brompton Hospital between 1985 and 1996.1 They report that body wasting, as represented by % ideal weight, was a significant predictor of survival before and after correction for age, sex, % predicted FEV1, Pao2, and Paco2.
In 1997 Hayllar and colleagues reported the survival of 503 patients with CF attending the Royal Brompton Hospital between 1969 and 1993.2 They found that low blood haemoglobin concentration (Hb), low plasma albumin concentration, and short stature were significant predictors of survival although, of these, only height was included in their final predictive model. Other recent reports have shown both weight and height to be significant predictors of survival in CF.3,4
We recently reported the survival of 181 children with CF referred to the paediatric lung transplantation programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).5 Following Hayllar's report, we opted to study a wide range of variables including Hb, albumin, and % ideal weight as markers of nutritional status. All three variables were …