PEDIATRICS Vol. 42 No. 3 September 1968, pp. 458-464
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THE EFFECT OF ADRENERGIC STIMULATION UPON SWEATING IN NORMAL CHILDREN AND CYSTIC FIBROSIS PATIENTS

Lewis E. Gibson M.D.1

1 Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

An abnormality of the autonomic nervous system has frequently been postulated as having a role in the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. The author investigated the effects of adrenergic stimulation upon sweating in cystic fibrosis patients and in control subjects. It was found that the iontophoresis of isoproterenol, prior to the iontophoresis of pilocarpine, produces, in all subjects, more sweat than that produced by the iontophoresis of pilocarpine alone. In the cystic fibrosis patients, but not in the control subjects, the iontophoresis of isoproterenol led to a small (8.9%) but significant drop in the chloride concentration of the sweat. Sweating produced by the intracutaneous injection of isoproterenol, but not that produced by intracutaneous norepinephrine, could be blocked by the iontophoresis of atropine. This occurred in both cystic fibrosis patients and control subjects. These experimental results can be explained by hypothesizing that excessive water reabsorption occurs in the sweat duct of cystic fibrosis patients and that isoproterenol inhibits ductal water reabsorption in both the cystic fibrosis patients and the unaffected controls.

Submitted on November 8, 1967
Accepted on March 11, 1968