Sweat Test in Asthmatic Children; a Single Center Study

Asthma and cystic fibrosis (cf) have some identical manifestations. in the presentstudy, the frequency of positive sweat test was assessed in asthmatic children.this cross-sectional study was performed in asthmatic children, who were referred tobahrami children hospital, tehran, during july 2003 to july 2005. sweat test was performedfor all children.one hundred and thirty five (95 males and 40 females) asthmatic were studied. sweat testwas positive in 35 (26[yo) patients. major signs and symptoms among these 35 patients were:cough (35/35), dyspnea (7/35), chronic diarrhea (6/35), and steatorrhea (1/35). failure tothrive was found in 31 of 35 patients. the mean duration of asthma in patients with positivetest was 49.3 months, which was significantly higher than 18.1 months in the group withnegative test (p=o.ooi). significant relations between recurrent respiratory tract infections(p=o.029), chronic diarrhea (p=o.ooi), failure to thrive (p=o.oooi), and positive sweat testwere found.sweat test should be recommended in asthmatic children with recurrent upper respiratorytract infections, long duration of asthma, chronic diarrhea, and failure to thrive.