Cystic Fibrosis

3 Pages 733 Words

Statistics
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is among one of the most prevalent genetically innate disorders in the United States. CF is generally diagnosed in infancy and ‘roughly five percent of white Americans are symptomatic carriers, harboring a single mutant gene in their cells’ (Ryley, 2001). According to the data given by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the average survival age of a person living today with cystic fibrosis is 31.3 years which is atypical when weighed against 50 years ago when a infant diagnosed with cystic fibrosis was not expected live outside of childhood. Cystic Fibrosis carriers are born with a recessive gene that can be altered in up to twenty ways. Although only one mutated gene needs to exist in order to be deemed a carrier, in order for the child to exhibit symptoms of CF, two autosomal recessive genes must be present.
Statistically speaking, if two carriers if two carriers of cystic fibrosis married, there will statistically be one of three outcomes: 1. Fifty percent chance the child will be a carrier. 2. Twenty-five percent chance that the child will have cystic fibrosis. 3. Twenty-five percent chance that the child will not have any marker for cystic fibrosis. Fortunately in 1989, there was a phenomenal scientific breakthrough in research for cystic fibrosis, because researchers finally found the single mutated gene that causes CS (chromosome 7).
Cystic Fibrosis as a disease


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The innate abnormality of cystic fibrosis can demolish the lungs and cause serious mutilation of the pancreas, intestines, and liver. Physicians have recognized that ductile systems and other passageways in the organs infected by cystic fibrosis generally become blocked with unusually bulky secretions. In the pancreas, ducts that transport digestive enzymes to the intestines usually become congested, impairing the body’s ability to break down food and extort nutrients. With the help of new inn...