HEART

When people think of cystic fibrosis (CF) they – perhaps rightly – think of the lungs and the pancreas and the liver. They might even think about sweat glands and the reproductive system.

They are unlikely to think about heart complications because those are (thankfully) less common for individuals with CF than other organ complications.

However, this does not mean that they are entirely absent.

Indeed, new research suggests that the link between CF and heart complications needs to be much better understood and not just for the obvious reason that certain CF mutations can result in general tissue failure including cardiac dysfunction.

Cardiac failure is an important concern in the CF world for obvious reasons, but what has been overlooked up until now is the wealth of opportunities that modern heart research can offer for general CF treatments.

Advanced transplant techniques developed by heart surgeons at Stanford may offer a more reliable transplant program to certain CF patients in the near future. At the same time, certain CF symptoms have proven responsive to tromethamine, which was originally developed as a heart medication.

Exotic and unexpected medical relationships of this kind are why it is important to understand the extent of the CF Donut.

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