Assessment of sweat-testing practices for the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the results of the College of American Pathologists survey questions assessing the current practice of sweat testing in North America and to identify areas in which improvement is needed. DATA SOURCE: Results of the supplemental questions to the SW-B 2000 survey. STUDY SELECTION: Supplemental questions were designed to assess variation in sweat collection, analysis, and interpretation. DATA EXTRACTION: Extractions of the data were made based on the relevance of the data to the objectives of the review. DATA SYNTHESIS: The majority of laboratories surveyed performed sweat testing according to the procedures described in the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards' document. The study revealed that a number of laboratories have adopted poor practice standards and are potentially compromising patient care. Areas of concern include the number of laboratories performing few sweat tests per year, the persistence of unreliable methodology, misunderstanding of collection parameters, lack of patient education, and erroneous result reporting.
CONCLUSIONS: The study identified areas of concern toward which educational efforts can be directed. Such efforts include the development of a College of American Pathologists accreditation checklist for sweat testing and targeted responses in the sweat analysis participant summary report.