RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Intestinal current measurement (ICM) as a new diagnostic test for cystic fibrosis (CF) JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP 361 VO 38 IS Suppl 55 A1 Malena Cohen-Cymberknoh A1 Yasmin Yaakov A1 Eitan Kerem A1 David Shoseyov A1 Joseph Rivlin A1 Lea Bentur A1 Elie Picard A1 Micha Aviram A1 Michael Wilschanski YR 2011 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/361.abstract AB Background: Like the nasal potential difference (NPD) test, ICM may be useful for the diagnosis of atypical CF. However, ICM is easily applicable at all ages.Aim: To assess the diagnostic reliability of ICM in a large cohort of CF, healthy control and patients with questionable CF.Methods: Rectal biopsies were taken from 3 groups: known CF patients, healthy controls and patients with questionable CF. The last group had a variety of symptoms suggestive of CF: recurrent pneumonia, unexplained bronchiectasis, chronic diarrhea and/or failure to thrive. ICMs were performed using standard protocols by mounting the rectal biopsy in an Ussing chamber and sequentially adding secretagogues while recording current changes.Results: 17 known CF patients and 16 control patients were examined and have remarkably different results (all results are presented as μA/cm2): carbachol 16±7, histamine 13±9 and forskolin 4.8±4 for healthy control group and carbachol -3.7±6.8 (p<0.0001) histamine -3.1±2.7 (p<0.0001) and forskolin 0.2±0.4 (p=0.0004) for the CF group. The suggested reference values are: +3.75, +0.25, +1.32 for carbachol, histamine and forskolin, respectively. The combination score (the sum of the 3 secretagogues) differentiates normal from abnormal ICM (ROC Curve analysis, area under the curve =1.00, both sensitivity and specificity are 100%). This statistical model was applied to 70 patients suspected for CF and revealed that 59 patients had normal and 11 patients had abnormal ICM results.Conclusion: In this study we have shown that ICM tests may be useful to differentiate between CF and non-CF patients and may be included in diagnostic algorithms. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results.