Cystic fibrosis of the pancreas is a hereditary disease of children and young adults characterized by dysfunction of many of the exocrine glands. It is manifest most often by pancreatic insufficiency, chronic lung disease, and excessive loss of sodium and chloride in sweat. The etiology is unknown and although the majority of patients die in infancy or childhood of chronic lung disease, an increasing number are living in the second and third decades.
Cystic fibrosis is a relatively new disease, having been clearly delineated in this country for the first time by Andersen in 1938.1 Since that time, the disorder has attracted much attention and is being intensively studied in many centers throughout the world.2,3,4 The frequency of the recessive genetic expression of this disease has been estimated as of the order of 1:1,000 live births. The diagnosis can be made relatively easily by eliciting a characteristic history