Successful heart-lung transplantation for cystic fibrosis.

Sixteen months after heart-lung transplantation, the FEV1 of a young woman, who had been in the terminal stages of cystic fibrosis, has risen from 16 percent (0.6 L) to 77 percent of her predicted value. Concomitant with the changes in pulmonary function, her ventilatory response to re-breathing carbon dioxide has improved, and so has her exercise tolerance. She has returned to work.