Letter: Life tables for cystic fibrosis.

I read the article by Drs. Robinson and Norman on life tables 
for cystic fibrosis with much interest. They express their disappointment at 
not finding any difference between the life expectancy of children presenting 
during the first year and that of all cases. In fact 
the former may be a little worse. Is it not what 
should be expected? Since infection is known to be present as 
early as the first month of life, the diagnosis is probably 
late in nearly all cases. Do the authors not point out 
the necessity of an evaluation of neonatal screening? On the other 
hand, and logically, one can expect that a very late diagnosis 
is consistent nowadays with a very mild case - and the 
best therapeutic results! Shwachman's report of patients over 17 years of 
age seems to support this belief: only 12% of the series 
had been diagnosed before one year of age. Therefore I think 
we should evaluate the course of late presenting cases (after one 
year of age for instance) separately since a large delay in 
diagnosis may be a clue to the mildness of the disease. 
