Cystic fibrosis in South India.

Cystic fibrosis has been diagnosed during life in three South Indian infants on the basis of characteristic clinical features and a positive sweat test. The patients were respectively 81 days, 23 days and 6 months old. All three presented with the rare characteristic triad of gross oedema, hypoproteinaemia and moderate to severe anaemia; it is described for the first time from South India. Three patients were exclusively breast-fed; the third received complements of diluted cow's milk. Sweat sodium and chloride were elevated in the first two cases and was normal in the third. All three died with progressive deterioration 10, 31 and 7 days respectively after admission in the hospital. At autopsy, changes typical of cystic fibrosis were present in pancreas, lung, liver and the small intestine of one, in the lungs of the second and in pancreas and liver of the third case.