Cystic fibrosis--a probable cause of Frédéric Chopin's suffering and death.

Frédéric Chopin--a great Polish composer and pianist--suffered from a chronic disease. Both during his life and after death physicians disagreed on the subject of Chopin's diagnosis. His contemporaries accepted the diagnosis of a disease common in the 18th century--tuberculosis. Description of new clinical entities provoked new dilemmas in the 20th century. In our opinion the most tenable seems to be the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. In this work we present F. Chopin's case history and discuss cons and pros for cystic fibrosis as the cause of F. Chopin's suffering and death.