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Objective: To explore primary care providers' (PCPs') preferred roles and confidence in caring for infants receiving a positive cystic fibrosis (CF) newborn screening (NBS) result, as well as management of CF family planning issues, given that expanded NBS has resulted in an increase in positive results., Design: Mailed questionnaire., Setting: Ontario., Participants: Ontario FPs, pediatricians, and midwives identified by Newborn Screening Ontario as having had an infant with a positive CF NBS result in their practice in the previous 6 months., Main Outcome Measure: Primary care providers' preferred roles in providing well-baby care for infants with positive CF screening results., Results: Overall, 321 of 628 (51%) completed surveys (208 FPs, 68 pediatricians, 45 midwives). For well-baby care for infants confirmed to have CF, 77% of PCPs indicated they would not provide total care (ie, 68% would share care with other specialists and 9% would refer to specialists completely); for infants with an inconclusive CF diagnosis, 50% of PCPs would provide total care, 45% would provide shared care, and 5% would refer to a specialist; for CF carriers, 89% of PCPs would provide total care, 9% would provide shared care, and 2% would refer. Half (54%) of PCPs were extremely or very confident in providing reassurance about CF carriers' health. Only 25% knew how to order parents' CF carrier testing; 67% knew how to refer for prenatal diagnosis. Confidence in reassuring parents about the health of CF carrier children was associated with providing total well-baby care for CF carriers (risk ratio of 1.50; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.97) and infants with an inconclusive diagnosis (risk ratio of 3.30; 95% CI 1.34 to 8.16)., Conclusion: Most PCPs indicated willingness to treat infants with a range of CF NBS results in some capacity. It is concerning that some indicated CF carriers should have specialist involvement and only half were extremely or very confident about reassuring families about carrier status. This raises issues about possible medicalization of those with carrier status, prompting the need for PCP education about genetic disorders and the meaning of genetic test results., (Copyright © the College of Family Physicians of Canada.)

Objective: To explore primary care providers' (PCPs') role in result notification for newborn screening (NBS) for cystic fibrosis (CF), given that expanded NBS has increased the number of positive screening test results, drawing attention to the role of PCPs in supporting families., Design: Cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews., Setting: Ontario., Participants: Primary care providers (FPs, pediatricians, and midwives) who received a positive CF NBS result for an infant in their practice in the 6 months before the study., Main Outcome Measures: Whether the PCP notified the family of the initial positive CF screening result., Results: Data from 321 PCP surveys (response rate of 51%) are reported, including 208 FPs, 68 pediatricians, and 45 midwives. Interviews were completed with 34 PCPs. Most (65%) surveyed PCPs reported notifying the infant's family of the initial positive screening result; 81% agreed that they have an important role to play in NBS; and 88% said it was important for PCPs, rather than the NBS centre, to notify families of initial positive results. With support and information from NBS centres, 68% would be extremely or very confident in doing so; this dropped to 54% when reflecting on their recent reporting experience. More than half (58%) of all PCPs said written point-of-care information from the NBS centre was the most helpful format. Adjusted for relevant factors, written educational information was associated with a lower rate of notifying families than written plus verbal information (risk ratio of 0.79; 95% CI 0.69 to 0.92). In the interviews, PCPs emphasized the challenge of balancing required content knowledge with the desire for the news to come from a familiar provider., Conclusion: Most PCPs notify families of NBS results and value this role. These data are relevant as NBS programs and other genomic services expand and consider ways of keeping PCPs confident and actively involved., (Copyright © the College of Family Physicians of Canada.)

Rationale: The lung clearance index (LCI) is responsive to acute respiratory events in preschool children with cystic fibrosis (CF), but its utility to identify and manage these events in school-age children with CF is not well defined. Objectives: To describe changes in LCI with acute respiratory events in school-age children with CF. Methods: In a multisite prospective observational study, the LCI and FEV 1 were measured quarterly and during acute respiratory events. Linear regression was used to compare relative changes in LCI and FEV 1 % predicted at acute respiratory events. Logistic regression was used to compare the odds of a significant worsening in LCI and FEV 1 % predicted at acute respiratory events. Generalized estimating equation models were used to account for repeated events in the same subject. Measurements and Main Results: A total of 98 children with CF were followed for 2 years. There were 265 acute respiratory events. Relative to a stable baseline measure, LCI (+8.9%; 95% confidence interval, 6.5 to 11.3) and FEV 1 % predicted (-6.6%; 95% confidence interval, -8.3 to -5.0) worsened with acute respiratory events. A greater proportion of events had a worsening in LCI compared with a decline in FEV 1 % predicted (41.7% vs. 30.0%; P  = 0.012); 53.9% of events were associated with worsening in LCI or FEV 1 . Neither LCI nor FEV 1 recovered to baseline values at the next follow-up visit. Conclusions: In school-age children with CF, the LCI is a sensitive measure to assess lung function worsening with acute respiratory events and incomplete recovery at follow-up. In combination, the LCI and FEV 1 capture a higher proportion of events with functional impairment.

Pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging using hyperpolarised 129 Xe gas (XeMRI) can quantify ventilation inhomogeneity by measuring the percentage of unventilated lung volume (ventilation defect per cent (VDP)). While previous studies have demonstrated its sensitivity for detecting early cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease, the utility of XeMRI to monitor response to therapy in CF is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of XeMRI to capture treatment response in paediatric CF patients undergoing inpatient antibiotic treatment for a pulmonary exacerbation.15 CF patients aged 8-18 years underwent XeMRI, spirometry, plethysmography and multiple-breath nitrogen washout at the beginning and end of inpatient treatment of a pulmonary exacerbation. VDP was calculated from XeMRI images obtained during a static breath hold using semi-automated k-means clustering and linear binning approaches.XeMRI was well tolerated. VDP, lung clearance index and the forced expiratory volume in 1 s all improved with treatment; however, response was not uniform in individual patients. Of all outcome measures, VDP showed the largest relative improvement (-42.1%, 95% CI -52.1--31.9%, p<0.0001).These data support further investigation of XeMRI as a tool to capture treatment response in CF lung disease., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: J.H. Rayment has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M.J. Couch reports partial salary support from Siemens Healthcare through the MITACS Elevate postdoctoral fellowship programme, during the conduct of the study. Conflict of interest: N. McDonald has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: N. Kanhere has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: D. Manson has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Santyr has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: F. Ratjen has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©ERS 2019.)

Lung disease in patients with both primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) or cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with impaired mucociliary clearance; however, clinical outcomes are typically worse in CF patients. We assessed whether CF and PCD patients differ in inflammatory response in the airways during pulmonary exacerbation.We first studied clinically stable PCD patients with a spectrum of bacterial pathogens to assess inflammatory response to different pathogens. Subsequently, PCD and CF patients with similar bacterial pathogens were studied at the time of a pulmonary exacerbation and after 21 days of antibiotics treatment. Qualitative and quantitative microbiology, cell counts, interleukin-8 concentrations, and neutrophil elastase activity were assessed in sputum samples obtained before and after treatment.In stable PCD patients, no significant differences were found in sputum inflammatory markers between individuals colonised with different bacterial pathogens. Pulmonary exacerbation severity assessed by a pulmonary exacerbation score and lung function decline from their previous baseline did not differ between CF and PCD patients. Bacterial density for Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae was higher in CF versus PCD (p<0.05), but absolute neutrophil counts were higher in PCD patients (p=0.02). While sputum elastase activity was similar in PCD and CF at the time of exacerbation, it decreased with antibiotic therapy in PCD (p<0.05) but not CF patients.PCD patients differ from those with CF in their responses to treatment of pulmonary exacerbations, with higher neutrophil elastase activity persisting in the CF airways at the end of treatment., (Copyright ©ERS 2016.)