Low blood pressure in young adults with cystic fibrosis: an effect of chronic salt loss in sweat?

Young adults with cystic fibrosis have lower blood pressures than control subjects of similar age and sex. The low blood pressure may be related to the excessive loss of salt in the sweat of these patients. A beneficial effect of the cystic fibrosis gene may be protection against developing hypertension in both the homozygous and heterozygous states, especially if the heterozygote has borderline elevation of sweat electrolytes.