Letter: Cystic fibrosis heterozygosity in pathogenesis of allergy.

The article by Dr Warner and colleagues may be of great significance 
to our understanding of the aetiology and pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis 
(C.F.), and accords with our observations that allergic symptoms and positive 
skin tests are more common in C.F. homozygotes than in healthy 
controls. Apart from the fact that 59% of our C.F. homozygotes 
gave a positive skin test to one or more of 40 
different classes of Bencard antigens, the main one being Aspergillus fumigatus, 
at least 85% of the C.F. heterozygotes had a strong positive 
history of allergy, of which the mother and her maternal progenitors, 
followed by the siblings, accounted for most. Further studies are required 
to establish the relationship, if any, between the gene responsible for 
the allergic manifestation in the population and the C.F. phenotype. 