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Letters to the Editor

Indian Pediatrics 2003; 40:685

An Indigenously Developed Method for Sweet Collection


We read with interest the recent article(1) on this subject and have the following comments to offer:

1. It would have been much better if diagrammatic representation of the circuit was given so that it could be easily understood and replicated by the readers. Authors have used 6 batteries of 1.5 V each. Whether single battery of 9 V would suffice? Whether any device was used for increasing/decreasing the current value as used by Gibson, et al.(2).

2. During the collection period, distilled water condenses on the plastic covering/cling film and sweat with higher concentration remains on the skin(3). This will alter the concentration of chloride in the sweat collected.

3. Whether a fixed amount of distilled water i.e., 8 mL can elute all the sweat of variable weights collected on filter paper?

4. The four misclassified values were in borderline range. These cases must have been subjected to another estimation of sweat chloride as is the practice in their centre. What was the final categorization of these cases?

5. The number of patients in whom sweat could not be tested for the second time were 29 and not 27.

K.K. Locham,
Manpreet Sodhi,

Department of Pediatrics,
Government Medical College,
Rajindra Hospital,
Patiala 147 001, India.

 

References


1. Kabra SK, Kabra M, Gera S, Lodha R, Sreedevi KN, Chacko S, et al. An indigenously developed method for sweat collection and estimation of chloride for diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. Indian Pediatr 2002; 11: 1039-10343.

2. Gibson LE, Cooke RE. A test for concentration of electrolytes in sweat in cystic fibrosis of the pancreas utilizing pilocarpine by ionto-phoresis. Pediatrics 1959; 23: 545-549.

3. Denning CR, Huang NN, Cuasay LR, Shwachaman H, Tocci P, Warwick WJ, et al. Cooperative study comparing three methods of performing sweat tests to diagnose cystic fibrosis. Pediatrics 1980; 66: 752-757.

 

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