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Diagnosis


Because CF is a genetic disease and researchers know which gene causes CF, one might think that the first and obvious way to find out if somebody has CF is to test their DNA for "the CF gene." The problem with this approach is that there are nearly 400 different variations of the CF gene, not all of which can be identified by DNA analysis. Instead, the diagnosis depends largely on a clinical test known as the sweat test, which provides a measure of Cl- (chloride ion) in the swe...Read the full article