HEADLINE: Lifeline for young patients

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The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)

May 30, 2003 Friday

HEADLINE: Lifeline for young patients

BYLINE: ZOE TAYLOR

CHILDREN with cystic fibrosis are being given a new lease of life thanks

to an innovative method of detecting potentially fatal lung infections.

The incurable disease leaves children susceptible to infections which

can destroy the lungs for years before being detected.

But doctors at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, have developed a

technique for picking up infections early on -- potentially adding years

to the lives of sufferers.

Dr Morton, head of respiratory medicine at the hospital, was the

first in Australia to use a bronchoscopy to examine children with the

disease. The technique involves passing a fibre-optic tube into the

lungs to check for inflammation and infection.

It is used in particular to detect bacteria, known as pseudomonas, which

is harmless to most people but children with cystic fibrosis do not have

the ability to fight it.

Without intervention, by the age of seven 90 per cent of children with

the disease have an uncontrollable level of the bacteria in their lungs.

But five years after introducing the bronchoscopy, every one of the 60

children screened at the hospital is clear of the bacteria.

Dr Morton said: " With this disease, by the time they start showing the

signs, the damage has already been done.

" Without this technique, it might be four or five years before we pick

up on the infection -- by that time the lungs are shot to pieces. "  

Most cystic fibrosis sufferers die of lung disease before the age of 30.

Dr Morton said: " It might be another 10 years before we know how much

difference using the bronchoscopy has made.

" By the time they are 30, they would usually have only 30 per cent lung

function and will be looking down the barrel of a lung transplant. This

is not a cure, but it really is a lifeline. "   The technique is

being used on children as soon as they are diagnosed with cystic

fibrosis -- an inherited condition which occurs in about one in every

2500 births.

But it is also being used to help older children like Madeleine Wilcox,

9, from Nowra.

She spent three weeks in the Children's Hospital in March, but

antibiotics did little to improve her cough or lung function.

Following a bronchoscopy, doctors were able to identify the bacteria.

She is due to go home next week.

Madeleine's mother Pat said: " It is just a huge relief. Before this the

doctors seemed to be stabbing in the dark, but now they know exactly

what they are dealing with. "

Becki

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